Forced marriages: 40 kids flee homes, seek refuge in Etsu Nupe's palace

By Francis Falola, Minna

Over 40 girls, including many kids in Niger State, have fled home and taken refuge at the palace of the Etsu Nupe and the state's chairman of traditional rulers, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar, over the decision to give them out in marriage.





The girls, whose ages range between 11 and 17 years, our correspondent gathered, fled their homes as a result of undue pressure from their parents to give them out against their will.

This development was made known by a director of the Women's Right Advancement Protection Agency, a non- governmental organisation, Alhaji Shehu Ammen.

The agency seeks to protect the rights of women and the girl-child.

Ammen said this during an interactive session with journalists on Enhancing Citizens' Access to Justice and Human Rights held at Haske Hotel in Minna, on Tuesday.

He disclosed that WRAPA and female lawyers in the state were collaborating with the state's Ministry of Women Affairs to address the problem.

He stated that there was an urgent need to thoroughly sensitise the public on the dangers inherent in forced marriages.

The Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, Niger State chapter, Alhaji Musa Sulaiman, who also spoke on the occasion, lamented that some magistrates connived with the police to deny suspects of their fundamental human rights.

Sulaiman, who regretted that suspects were unduly denied bail by magistrates in connivance with the police, described this as one of the major problems contributing to the congestion of the prisons in the country.

He also lamented that the rights of inmates in prisons in the country were unjustly abused by various authorities.

http://odili.net/news/source/2009/mar/4/403.html

given a girl btw the ages of 11-17 to a husband? na wa ooh