MEET SENATOR YERIMA, THE CHILD MARRIAGE ADVOCATE

He reportedly married a 13-year old Egyptian girl two years ago. Now this Nigerian Senator, Sani Yerima, is trying to legitimise his action. The Senate was going to fix the marriageable age for a girl in Nigeria to be 18 but Senator Yerima countered that it would be against Islamic law should the Senate do it. He argued that by Islamic law, any girl who is married is of age. In other words, since his 13-year old wife is married, she is of age. It also means that even if a five-old girl child is given out by her father to another man in marriage, that child is of age.