JUST IN: ‘₦3,000 Dowry, 5 Nights in a Hotel’, Hisbah Flogs Young Couple for Secret Wedding, Orders Islamic Remarriage
JUST IN: ‘₦3,000 Dowry, 5 Nights in a Hotel’, Hisbah Flogs Young Couple for Secret Wedding, Orders Islamic Remarriage
Two youths in Bauchi have been publicly disciplined by the State Hisbah Board after they secretly married themselves for a ₦3,000 dowry without parental consent or witnesses.
Commissioner Aminu Balarabe Isa told the BBC the pair, both under 30, hired an unidentified cleric to conduct the ceremony, then spent five days in a hotel “doing what is not appropriate” before they were arrested by Hisbah and local vigilantes.
Hisbah said the act violated Islamic marriage rules, which require a dowry, witnesses, and a guardian. “There is no marriage without a dowry, witnesses, and guardians,” Isa said, citing the Prophet Muhammad SAW.
The friends who officiated the wedding were punished with sweeping and caning, while clerics advised the couple to observe istibra’i and redo the marriage properly if they wish to stay together.
The parents of both youths have agreed to regularize the union and will follow due Islamic procedures, Hisbah confirmed. Isa blamed “moral decay” and parental negligence for rising cases of self-marriage, warning that unchecked acts could “destroy the institution of marriage.”
The couple have been returned to their families as the search for the unknown cleric continues. Watch the video in the comment section.
