ABUJA: Nigerian Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima, under fire over marrying a 13-year-old Egyptian girl, justified his actions Monday by saying he was following in the footsteps of Islam’s Prophet Mohamed.
"I am only following Prophet Mohammed’s footsteps who married a nine-year-old girl, Aishatu," Yerima told journalists shortly after his opposition ANPP party paid a visit to President Goodluck Jonathan.
Yerima, 49, who was governor of Nigeria’s northwestern state of Zamfara when it became the first of 12 Muslim-dominated northern states to introduce Sharia law in 2000, spurned Nigeria’s Child Rights Act of 2003 which forbids marriage with anyone under 18.
"I do not work with such law that runs counter to my religion," he said.
The Nigerian Senate has ordered a probe after the national rights watchdog and 10 other groups accused him of shaming the country.
Media reports have alleged Yerima paid a $100,000 dowry and married the girl at the National Mosque in the capital Abuja.
