Why I am sponsoring marriages 100 girls -Niger Speaker

Speaker of the Niger State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Abdulmalik Sarkindaji, has explained why he has decided to sponsor the marriages of about 100 girls from his Constituency in Mariga Local Government Area of the state.

He said the idea of getting the girls married to their long standing suitors, is to take responsibility to foot the bills for their marriages which was borne of his sympathy for their parents, some of whom are dead.

While reacting to misconceptions in some quarters that some of the girls are being given out in marriages against their wish, the Speaker in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communications, Mallam Shamsudeen Lawal Binaira, on Sunday said the insinuation is not true.

According to him, “the girls who are in two categories are not being given out in marriage against their wish, over 50 percent of these girls though have suitors, their parents have no resources to meet their marriage expenses as required by their customs and traditions.

“The other categories are those that have lost their parents to insecurity in the area and have nobody to finance their wedding even though they have their suitors.”

He explained further that, “most of the girls are orphans who have lost their parents, including children of our gallant vigilantes who lost their lives to bandits and nobody to finance their weddings despite attaining marriageable age with someone ready to marry them.

“According to the tradition of Hausa, you cannot marry out a girl without accompanying her with some essential needs to make her comfortable in her husband’s house like room furniture, such as beddings, mattress, kitchen utensils among others.

“Some, their parents have been postponing the marriages for lack of resources. This is one of many gestures to relieve parents of burden.”