A Sharia court sitting in Erena district of Shiroro Local Government Area, Niger State, has forcefully married out one Janet Habila, a Christian girl to her Muslim boss, one Nasiru, a tailor, without her parents’ consent.
According to Sun newspaper, the Court decision has sparked an outrage by the parents of Janet who have vowed to challenge the court decision with their last drop of blood.
Janet Habila, 16, was an apprentice in Nasiru’s tailoring institute in Erena, where her father had enrolled her to learn the trade after she refused to further her education beyond primary school
Janet’s father, a devoted church leader with the United Mountain of Grace in Shundna village and Janet herself, until recently was the leader of the Sabo Rayi (new life) group in the church.
Janet was enrolled in the tailoring institute in 2016 by her parents as a way of empowering her, but rather than learning the trade, the parents were shocked to receive a notification of her marriage through a Sharia court in Erena.
Nasiru, a Nigerian national who settled in Erena, was said to have approached the court to join him and Janet as husband and wife without seeking the consent and approval of the parents.
According to a source close to the family of the girl, Nasiru was said to have craftily organized some Muslim men and women in the area to stand as the parents of Janet in court to enable the marriage to take place.
Habila Gambo, Janet’s father told Sunday Sun that unless the decision by the Sharia court, presided over by Umar Shehu to forcefully marry his daughter out to her Muslim boss without his consent was reversed, ‘it will eventually lead to a possible religious crisis in Erena.’
Gambo warned that even if such illegality had happened elsewhere and they get away with it, ‘Erena and its environs would be thrown into confusion and possible anarchy by the practice of forced conversion and marriage.
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