By Our Reporter In a case raising fresh concerns over women’s rights and abuse of power in Northern Nigeria, a 25-year-old woma...
By Our Reporter
In a case raising fresh concerns over women’s rights and abuse of power in Northern Nigeria, a 25-year-old woman from Funtua has accused the Emir’s palace in Talata Mafara and an influential businessman of orchestrating her secret midnight marriage without her consent or the knowledge of her legal guardians — a marriage she says courts have repeatedly upheld despite her rejection.
Maryam Abubakar, who was born and raised in Funtua until her family relocated to Talata Mafara in 2017, told our reporter that her maternal uncle and Alhaji Mu’awiyya Dan Sakai, a wealthy and well-connected businessman, arranged for her marriage to Mu’awiyya despite her explicit refusal.
According to Maryam, she had already chosen someone she wished to marry and had been warned about Mu’awiyya’s alleged history of marrying women and divorcing them at will. She alleges that her uncle and Mu’awiyya went to the Emir of Mafara, Dr. Bello Barmo, claiming she loved Mu’awiyya and that her mother was trying to force her into another marriage.
Maryam says the Emir ordered her marriage to Mu’awiyya to be conducted immediately. “They conducted the marriage at about 12 midnight in the house of Marafan Mafara, following the Emir’s instructions,” she said. “Neither I, my mother, my siblings, my grandfather, nor my stepfather knew about it.”
The Chief Imam of Talata Mafara officiated the ceremony, but Maryam’s legal guardians confronted Marafa the next morning, demanding to know why her marriage was conducted without their consent. Marafa reportedly told them he was simply obeying the Emir’s directive.
Maryam said all efforts to annul the marriage were blocked by Mu’awiyya’s influence. She noted that the Alfijir newspaper once published her story but later deleted it without explanation.
She added that the Human Rights Commission intervened, and the Chief Imam himself admitted procedural errors, yet the marriage was upheld in court. “Alhaji Mu’awiyya vowed to stop me from marrying anyone else unless I accepted him,” she claimed.
On July 8, 2023, Maryam’s guardians went ahead to marry her to the man she originally loved. She alleges this prompted the arrest and two-week imprisonment of her mother, while her brother and the Imam who officiated the wedding were sought by authorities.
Maryam now lives with her husband and their baby boy but says harassment from Mu’awiyya persists. “Every time we went to court, the judgment favored Mu’awiyya because of his wealth and connections with the Emir’s palace,” she alleged.
She maintains she never consented to marry Mu’awiyya, never received any bride price from him, and does not recognise the legitimacy of the union. “This is not just my fight; it is about justice for every woman who may face the same abuse,” she said, appealing to the public and human rights groups to intervene.
As of press time, multiple attempts to obtain comments from the Emir’s palace and Alhaji Mu’awiyya were unsuccessful.
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