A business man, Mohammed Yakubu Jacob, yesterday married off another set of 50 less privileged girls in Gashua town, Yobe State.
This is coming a month after he married off 40 internally displaced girls, which attracted thousands of well-wishers.
DailyTrust correspondent, who was at the wedding, reports that the ceremony was
held under the guardianship of Emir of Gashua, Alhaji Abubakar Umar
Sulaiman, at his palace mosque in Gashua.
The girls were mostly
daughters of internally displaced parents, orphans, and less privileged
people who had suitors but could not have the means to marry them off.
Speaking at the event, the Emir of Gashua said all the couples had undergone genotype, HIV, and pregnancy tests.
He said the brides and grooms had been screened religiously to avert any chance that would invalidate their marriages.
“We
went to the extent of training these girls in different trades to make
them self-reliant. That is why we came up with a council that would
settle dispute between the couples, if any, because we would not
tolerate divorce until necessary.”
He thanked the businessman for
relieving the parents of a ‘huge’ burden, while appealing to the
well-to-do to extend similar gesture.
“Because these girls are
due for marriage, they have suitors, but the parents have no money. This
man did all the necessary things needed,” he said.
Fielding
question from Daily Trust, the businessman said he had received endless
calls from girls to help them get married after he married off the first
batch few months ago.
“These girls will call me crying for help
that their parents have no means to marry them off. I know how it feels
for a father to have a grown up daughter that is due for marriage but he
does not have money to do that. Some of the girls even lost their
parents and I don’t want their dream to remain unfulfilled,” he said.
One of the brides, Aisha Muhammad, thanked the businessman for making her dream come true.
DailyTrust
