An Islamic Court in the northern Nigerian state of Kano has ordered 10 singers popular on the TikTok social media platform to be investigated for allegedly corrupting public morality.

A spokesperson for the judiciary in Kano state, Baba Jibo Ibrahim, told the BBC the order to investigate the singers followed a complaint by a group of lawyers accusing them of using obscene language in their songs.

The authorities say if police investigations find sufficient evidence, the musicians would be prosecuted.

The singers – who are popular with young people in northern Nigeria, particularly on TikTok – have not yet commented publicly on the allegations.

Some of them are also actors in the booming Hausa-language movie industry known as Kannywood.

Kano is among around a dozen states in northern Nigeria where Sharia, or Islamic law, is practiced along with the country’s secular laws.

A number of artists have been jailed in the past in the region for promoting what the authorities called ‘’immorality’’.