TWELVE years old Aminat Hamisu, a Class 1 student of Ansar Ud Deen Junior Secondary School in Ado Odo/Ota Local Government is in dire need of someone to save her life from impending disaster. She is a subject of a forceful marriage to a man, old enough to be her grandfather. She lost her father in the course of the confusion that ensued over her planned marriage to a septuagenarian. Aminat is supposed to be a Junior Secondary School 2 student but had to miss a whole academic session as a result of the fact that she had to escape from being forcefully engaged to a man, who should have been her guardian rather than husband. The insistence of the old man to marry her has also resulted in her missing classes.
Forty three years old Salamatu
Hamisu, the mother of the 12 years old girl, while speaking with the Nigerian
Tribune, appealed to well-meaning Nigerians and human rights organisations to
save her daughter from forceful marriage to a man bent on marrying the girl.
The mother of seven, while narrating the whole episode to Nigerian Tribune
stated that it all started in 2001, when a man identified as Mallam Ibraheem
Mairago, who was like a father to her insisted on marrying Aminat, who was just
11 years of age at that time.According to her, a certain Mallam Alli had told
Mairago that he had a dream that if he could marry Aminat, his riches would
multiply. Meirago believed Mallam Alli and instantly approached the father of
Aminat, Alhaji Hamisu Aliyu, now deceased, asking for the hand of his daughter
in marriage.
“Initially my husband refused but,
when Mairago promised him some goodies, he accepted the marriage proposal
without telling either the girl or me. Mairago promised to give him a portion
at the ram market in Mile 12. He also promised to always involve him in Quranic
recitation for wealthy people in Lagos,” Salamatu narrated. She also stated
that “One day, my husband brought some yards of cloth home and said that it was
meant for my daughter. I asked him where the cloth was from and he said that Alhaji
Mairago bought it for her. I asked her for what reason and he said he did not
know. I rejected the cloth and when I prodded him further he confessed to me
that Meirago wanted to marry our daughter.”
The planned marriage led to a clash
between the household of the late Mallam Hamisu Aliyu, forcing him to report
the case to his brother in law in Sagamu. The brother in law also initially
kicked against the planned wedding but later succumbed, in a circumstance
Salamatu described as suspicious. “When I refused to support the marriage
proposal, my late husband reported me to my brother in Sagamu and my
brother also kicked against the marriage but later he took Mairago to my
brother and it was agreed that Mairago should pay N50,000 as the bride price.
At this stage, my daughter was not
even aware that somebody wanted to marry her,” the mother said. She also said
that “When the situation got to a stage my daughter was informed and she became
really devastated. Because of the marriage talk, she ran away from home for
four days. On the day she ran away, I woke her early in the morning and told
her to go and pray. For more than three hours, I did not see her and we looked
around Mile 12 Market but she was nowhere to be found. It was after four days
that we saw her. The situation grew so tense that the deceased Aliyu
divorced his wife, who was then nursing a two-month- old baby.
The woman said that she was sent away from her
husband’s house and she had to live on menial jobs in Mowe area of Ogun State.
Before the death of Aminat’s father, her suitor forced him and the mother’s
brother to refund the N50,000 naira he paid to them as the bride price. Though
the father was said not to have taken out of the money when it was paid, the
brother-in-law collected N40,000, while a certain Alhaji Manga also went away
with N10,000.
The refund of the bride price,
ordinarily, should have been the end of the proposed marriage but Alhaji
Meirago kept on pestering the girl’s family that he wanted to marry the
underage girl. He was accused of victimising the late Aliyu, who was then
working under him. “Before my husband died, he got to know that I had relocated
to Sango in Ogun State, where I was staying with my cousin, Mallam Thani Bala.
He even pleaded with my cousin not to allow me return to Mowe. By this time
Alhaji Mairago had married another wife for him. My husband still loved me and
he was coming to see me, even sometime he would sleep in my cousin’s house,”
the woman claimed. She further claimed that “When Alhaji Mairago got to know
that my husband was still coming to see me in my cousin’s place, he changed to
him totally. Even when they told him that my husband was ill, he said that as
long as my husband was coming to see me, he should die.”
The death of the father of the 12-year-old
girl has, however, not changed the situation as Mallam Mairago has
turned his attention to Mallam Bala, who he accused of habouring his wife.
According to the mother, “Mairago has continued to insist that Aminat is his
wife and that he wants the police to force Thani to release the young girl to
him.” In his reaction to the issue, Alhaji Mairago, who spoke through his
lawyer, Mr. Jeleel Bashir, said that the proposed marriage was in accordance
with Islamic Law. He said that he had secured the approval of the bride's
father and paid the required bride price as stipulated by Islamic law. The
lawyer claimed that there were witnesses to the marriage between Alhaji Mairago
and Aminat, adding that the only person, who had the right to dissolve the marriage
was Alhaji Mairago himself.
On the claim by the girl's mother
that the bride price had been returned, the lawyer said that "I am not
aware that the bride price had been returned. Even if the bride price was
returned, that does not mean that the marriage has been dissolved."
According to Bashir, Islamic law
permits such marriage, even if the bride to be is not in support of the
marriage. “Islamic law allows a guardian to choose for the girl if she is
underage,” he said. He, however, said that the purpose of such marriage is not
essentially for sex but for the suitor to take care of the underage girl.
The girl, while speaking with the
Nigerian Tribune, kicked against the planned marriage. She insisted on
completing her education before thinking of marriage and added that the man was
even far older than her father. “I don’t want to marry now; I want to finish my
schooling. Alhaji’s children cannot even be my friends because they are older
than I am. I don’t want to marry Alhaji. He should leave me to complete my
education,” the 12-year-old girl said.
Source: Tribune
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