Child Rights Groups Kick As 54-Year-Old Man Marries 4-Year-Old Girl In Bayelsa

Eko Hot Blog reports that the marriage union between a four-year-old and a 54-year-old man in the Akeddei community in the Sagbama local government of Bayelsa State has drawn criticism from several child rights advocacy groups.

The groups, including the Do Foundation, noted that child marriage is against the Nigerian Constitution and the Child Rights Act.

It was gathered that the illegal marriage between the child and a 54-year-old man identified as Elder Akpos was at the instance of the girl’s parents, who claimed that the man was her husband in her past lives.

According to community sources who shared details with the media, the girl asserted that the man was her husband from a past life, and he had inexplicably passed away. Throughout the years, she had been relocating in pursuit of her deceased former husband.

One of the sources said, “The little bride said if she was not allowed to marry her husband, she would have no other business in Akeddei community, and that she was going to die peacefully and go her way.

“In order to avoid losing the girl to death, the people of Akeddei decided to organise a glamorous wedding ceremony to mark the union of the two previous life lovers.”

In response to the union, the Do Foundation, represented by Elvis Mannie Esq., its Chairperson in Bayelsa State, issued a statement confirming the initiation of an investigation into the situation. The foundation aims to intervene and protect the child in question.

In the statement, the foundation “described the said child marriage as horrendous and despicable, and also a criminal activity, capable of retarding the giant strides made by the government and people of Bayelsa State in the area of protection of child rights.”

“It noted that the Child Rights Law was domesticated in 2016 and is still in force in Bayelsa State.

This law criminalises child marriages and child betrothals on pain of imprisonment and heavy fines,” it said.

The organisation called on the Government of Bayelsa State, the Gender Response Initiative Team and all stakeholders in the Gender Response system, including security agencies, to launch a thorough investigation into the incident, to protect the child from sexual exploitation, and arrest and prosecute all “persons found culpable in this despicable event”.

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