The Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC, has urged the Minister for Women Affairs and Social Development, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, to withdraw the litigation and petition she wrote to the Inspector General of Police, IGP, over the proposed marriage of 100 orphaned girls by the speaker of the Niger State House of Assembly, Abdulmalik Sarkin-Daji.
The chairman of the Kano State Chapter of MURIC, Hassan Indabawa, stated this in a statement issued to the newsmen on Thursday.
Recall that the minister has on Monday approached a court of law to stop Mr Sarkin-Daji from marrying off the 100 prospective brides.
But Mr Indabawa described the minister as too hasty and harsh.
He said: “We found the harsh and hasty decision taken by the Honourable Minister for Women Affairs over a matter that is entirely beyond the scope of her ministry.
“The minister’s attempt at media demonisation of marrying off of 100 poor and orphaned girls, who were largely traumatised for losing both parents to brutal and bloody banditry and insurgency, exposed her ignorance to the culture and traditions of the Muslim North.
“This elaborate media blitz, over the matter, MURIC observed, was deliberately done to sway public opinion against the marriage institution, and an attempt to vilify Sarkin-Daji, after demonstrating his genuine concern for the needs of members of his constituency,” Mr Indabawa said.
According to MURIC, since her appointment, Mrs Kennedy-Ohanenye has become famous for some weird public statements, “including being seen on TV recently suggesting that children can be engaged in tooth pick, sanitary pads production, thereby promoting child labour, which she is supposed to condemn by virtue of her position”.
“We, at MURIC, therefore, categorically and unequivocally call on minister Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye to immediately withdraw the purported legal case she has filed and equally withdraw the petition she had written to the IGP to avoid an imminent embarrassment because, in this matter, no law has been breached and no coercion was ever to be established,” the statement added.
