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The marriage between a four-year-old ‘bride’ and a 54-year-old man in Nigeria’s oil-rich Bayelsa community is a traditional rite to save the child’s life, the girl’s parents have said.
After hearing from the child’s parents, the traditional ruler of the community and other rights groups, we have ceased fire and let sleeping dogs lie,” Dr Abayomi Alabi, Director of Child Rights International, told reporters.
“We were ready to free the poor girl from the perceived abuse, but the explanation came at a good time to defuse the tension the incident had generated,” he said.
The marriage, which took place in the Akeddei community in Sagbama Local Government Area of Bayelsa on December 26, 2023, was explained as a spiritual rite to ‘untie’ the duo, who were betrothed in their ‘previous lives’.
The girl’s parents, the 54-year-old man, the traditional ruler and others, who participated in the marriage, were summoned by the Bayelsa Government following a public outcry.
The parents of the ‘bride’ and three others appeared before the state government’s Gender Response Initiative Team (GRiT) to explain their role in child marriage.
In their separate submissions, they all insisted that the purported child marriage was a traditional practice termed “Koripamo” aimed to save the little girl’s life.
Source:The Citizen.
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