Nigerian senator ‘takes 13 year old as wife’ WTF?
Cairo's embassy in Nigeria said on Thursday a 13-year-old girl at the centre of claims that a Nigerian senator had taken the minor as his fourth wife is still at school in Egypt. The senator, Ahmed Sani Yerima, 49, meanwhile denied in an interview with the BBC that the girl was 13 and said that as a Muslim he had not broken any law by marrying the teenager claiming Sharia law allows this.
"The girl is still in school in Egypt and nobody has complained to the embassy in respect of the girl," Egyptian embassy spokesman Mohammed Saber told AFP.
He said however that the embassy "will follow the issue" because it is illegal in Egypt to marry an underage girl. The Nigerian senate on Wednesday ordered an inquiry after claims by rights groups that Yerima had paid a dowry of $US100,000 to marry the girl.
Women's groups protested outside parliament on Tuesday to urge the senate to investigate the claims.
In a telephone interview from Egypt with the BBC's Hausa service on Thursday, Yerima defended himself. "I don't care about the issue of age since I have not violated any rule as far as Islam is concerned," he said, describing those complaining as "detractors". "History tells us that Prophet Mohammed did marry a young girl as well. Therefore I have not contravened any law. Even if she is 13, as it is being falsely peddled around."
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