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.
