Some officials of the Kano state Hisbah board were among those who took wives during the first batch of the much-publicized government planned mass wedding scheme for widows and divorcees, which took place in Kano on Tuesday.
About 100 out of an estimated 1,000 women due for the mass wedding were married off by the Kano state government through the Hisbah board as part of its plans to bring down the astronomical number of widows and divorcees in the state.
The mass wedding which began about 10:30am at the City Mosque near the Emir’s palace within the Kano metropolis recorded mammoth turnout of guests and spectators. The Emir of Kano state Alhaji Ado Bayero and the Secretary to the Kano State Government (SSG) attended the occasion.Investigations by Daily Trust revealed however that some of the couples who met through the government wedding scheme chose to get married privately instead of taking part in the group marriage because their parents were skeptical of the exercise.
The Director General of the Hisbah board, Malam abba Sa’idu Sufi who spoke to Daily Trust described the mass marriage as a “highly successful exercise which has enjoyed the support of the government, members of the press and the media”.
He said the government gave the board about N15 million to fund the activities of the mass wedding while famous business magnate and cleric Sheik Isyaku Rabiu donated N1 million to the grooms to pay the dowries of their spouses which was pegged at N10,000 each.