She’s too young to decide for herself; he’s not Fulani —Father
A 23-year-old spinster, Khadija Ibrahim, yesterday, brought her father, Ibrahim Bassa, before an upper area court in Karu, Abuja, for not allowing her to marry a man of her choice.
She told the court that she had a suitor, but her father refused to give his consent to the union.
She told the court: “He has refused to grant my request for marriage and he has also not given me a satisfactory explanation for his decision. The man I want to marry has made several attempts to meet with my father to discuss the wedding plans, but he always avoided him.
“Any day my suitor is meant to come, my father will leave the house for an unknown place and this habit is delaying our marriage plans.
The only reason he gave me was that the man I want to marry is not Fulani, which is not satisfactory to me because that is the only man I love.”
She pleaded with the court to order her father to allow her get married to the suitor, whose name she gave as Abdulhamidu.
“I want the court to compel him to give a satisfactory reason why I cannot marry the man I love,’’ she said.
On his part, the respondent, Bassa, told the court that the allegations of his daughter were all true.
According to him, “it is true that I have not granted the man any audience. I have always avoided him because I am against his choice as a suitor.
I have warned my daughter that marriage is not a child’s play. How can she get married to a man whose root and origin are not known to us?
“If you are getting married in the Fulani tribe, the man or woman’s immediate and extended families must be known to everyone.
“My Lord, she is too young to make a choice of marriage and even to marry an outsider. But she has remained adamant and even brought me to court.”
The judge, Abdullahi Baba, adjourned the matter till May 29, and advised everyone to maintain peace.
He also asked all the parties, including the plaintiff and her suitor, to appear in court on the next date of adjournment.
Source – Vanguard
