The Bauchi state government on Monday ordered the immediate closure of a secondary school in the state capital where students conducted illegal marriage ceremonies among themselves.
Teachers at the Sa’adu Zungur Model Primary and Secondary School in the state capital, Bauchi, were said to have happened upon a group of students celebrating the wedding of a pair of students and immediately reported the incident.
One of the supposed grooms was said to have paid a female student the sum of N500 as her bride price while their classmates contributed money for snacks while purporting to join the two lovebirds in matrimony.
One student told newsmen that “ We learned that the groom brought large sums of money to the bride’s friends for settlement after marriage had taken place. ”
The Bauchi state deputy governor, Nuhu Gidado, who doubles as the state’s commissioner for education in a statement on Monday through his special assistant on Communication, Yakubu Adamu, said the closure of the school was most necessary and effective from March 10.
Gidado blamed moral decadence in the society for the students’ behaviour.
The statement added that a committee, comprising all directors in the state Ministry of Education, the school authorities, teachers and Parents and Teachers Association (PTA), had been set up to investigate the matter and come up with a detailed report before the school can be reopened.
Government sources cited by
Vanguard also claimed that aside the illegal marriage ceremonies, there there had been reports of rampant sexual activities in the school before now.
The northern region of Nigeria has always had issues with child marriages and attendant health complications for the young brides.
Recently, one of the most notable individuals in the region, Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, began a campaign to reduce the incidence of child marriage.
The Emir also recently criticised men who abused their wives and suggested that poor men be discouraged from taking multiple wives.
