For the second time, governors of northern states where the Sharia legal system is in force have met with Federal Government officials to find ways of steering a middle course in the operations of the legal code.

At the last meeting between the two parties, a particularly sore area of disagreement was the use of some youth groups to enforce compliance with code the in some states.

Recently, the Deputy Governor of Kano, Dr. Umar Ganduje allegedly led a team of mallams, including young sharia enforcers to supervise the destruction of alcohol and burning of some hotels in parts of Kano city.

Yesterday's meeting, attended by the governors of Zamfara, Kebbi, Kano and Katsina, among others, was held with the National Security Adviser, retired Lt.-Gen. Aliyu Mohammed Gusau, as a follow-up to the last meeting.

The meeting was expected to fashion out a "middle of the road course" for both parties to ensure a "peaceful" implementation of the Islamic legal code, without posing any threat to non-Moslems.

The approach, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) learnt, was to allay the fears of non-Moslems in the sharia states, to be able to achieve cordial and harmonious co-existence between Moslems and non-Moslems throughout the country.

It was learnt that government had also at the last meeting expressed its reservation on the use of such religious youth groups, whom, it said, were allowed to take the laws into their hands.

On their part, the governors were said to have expressed their unhappiness over the attitude of the police in their states whom they accused of preferring to take cases of alleged Sharia code violations to the conventional magistrate courts, instead of taking the "suspects" before the newly established Sharia courts.