Ahmad Yerima, a former senator and a one-time governor of Zamfara state, had made the news in 2010, when he married a 14- year- old Egyptian woman.
The wedding ceremony had taken place at the national mosque, Abuja .
Yerima has disclosed that the woman in question is about completing her master’s degree.
Team@orientactualmags.com learned that he said this on Friday night while appearing on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme.
Yerima , who defended his decision to marry the young woman , added that she has continued her education unhindered.
‘She is doing her master’s degree now. I told you my own daughter ,who was married at the age of 16, is doing her Ph.D.
Marriage does not stop people from getting educated’ he said.
The former governor also picked holes in the Child Rights Act (2003) and the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act (2015), saying any act that has been passed by the National Assembly has to be domesticated by the state assemblies.
‘And once they have not done that, it’s no longer a law’ he added.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo according to him ‘tried to smuggle the Child Rights Act into the nation’s laws’ but this did not produce desired results.
‘He passed it at the National Assembly through some manipulations but I don’t think any state in the North domesticated it and passed it’ Yerima said.
Yerima also made a clarification in respect of the $100,000 that he made available during the wedding ceremony in 2010.
‘It was not dowry, all other things stipulated as conditions for the marriage were counted to arrive at that figure.
Provision of a house, provision of dowry, the dresses that she has to wear, everything in total. At that time, it was just N15 million.
Whatever you have to do in marriage is clearly stipulated under the Sharia Law. You have to provide a house for the girl, if you’re marrying her, like, from the condition the Egyptian government’s law provides’ he said-Team@orientactualmags.com
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