When asked if he could still marry a 13-year-old again, Yerima replied: “You don’t go into marriage with a particular age in mind. There is no law about the age bracket of marriage. And in my society, there is no law that forbids me from marrying a 13-year-old.”
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
A presidential hopeful seeking the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Sani Ahmed Yerima, has justified his 2010 marriage to a 13-year-old bride, saying no law forbids him from doing that then, and even now.
Recall that Yerima married his 13-year-old bride in Abuja to the chagrin of many Nigerians, including the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), which started the process of arraigning him for child marriage.
But NAPTIP later dropped the case because of religious considerations. Yerima had argued that his religion, Islam, allowed him to marry a girl that young. He had said at the time: “If there’s anybody who’ll tell me that what you did contradicts Islam, I ‘ll submit – and I’ll do whatever they ask me to do.”
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Today, while featuring in Politics Today, a Channels Television news and current affairs programme, Yerima restated that position when the host, Kayode Okikiolu asked him if he could still marry a 13-year-old. Yerima replied: “You don’t go into marriage with a particular age in mind. There is no law about the age bracket of marriage. And in my society, there is no law that forbids me from marrying a 13-year-old, and that is why NAPTIP dropped that case,” he said.
Yerima is seeking APC presidential ticket and believes that he is the best man for the job to help Nigerians overcome their challenges which he listed as poverty, ignorance and insecurity.