Kano Hizbah Board To Arrest And Prosecute ‘Couple’ Who Got Married On Facebook

29-year-old Sanusi Abdullahi and his ‘wife’ have been declared wanted by the Kano Hizbah Board, days after he narrated how he got engaged and eventually ‘married’ a girl while on Facebook group with other members.

According to Abdullahi, the marriage was contracted after he sent a N20,000 dowry following the girl’s marriage proposal to him. He told BBC Hausa;

“We were just chatting on a Facebook page with other group members when the girl proposed that I should marry her and I accepted, after a while she sent in another message that she had got a Wali (representative of her parents) that would give her out in marriage, and a friend of mine said he would be my representative. We agreed on a N20,000 dowry, and then the Islamic legal marital agreement was entered into by our representatives.”

He revealed that rumours of him being married after the dowry was paid, forced them to consult some Islamic scholars.

“We made some inquiries and some ulamas confirmed the marriage, saying all the prerequisites of marriage were fulfilled. But when we contacted Sheikh Ibrahim Daurawa, he said the marriage was invalid since there was no consent of parents of the bride,” he added.

Abdullahi also disclosed that the parents of the girl he got ‘married’ to on Facebook are annoyed with him, as their daughter already has suitor coming in few months time.

Commenting on the Facebook marriage, spokesman of Kano State Shari’ah Commission, Sanusi Muhammad, said the commission had directed the Hizbah board to arrest them in order to serve as a deterrent.

“What they did is against the dictates of Shari’ah and the next line of action after their arrest is to arraign them before a court of law for prosecution,” he said.