Based on a prediction that his fortune would
experience a leap, should he be married to a 12-
year-old, a septuagenarian is hell bent on
exchanging marital vows with the pre-teen girl
despite the protestations of the mother. Olalekan
Olabulo reports.
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.
-Nigerian TRIBUNE
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