A Nigerian man who entered the record books by marrying 86 wives and over 185 Children died today in Niger
State at the age of 84.According to a report reaching
CKN Nigeria, Pa Abubakar Masaba who stirred controversies some years back had
several wives whom he married contrary to Islamic faith which only allowed
four wives at a time.This attitude led to his banishment from his place of abode and even disfranchised from voting at the last
general election.He was said to have died today
after a brief illness in Bida ,Niger State.It is yet to be seen what will
happen to his 86 wives.
Here was a video clip of him and an interview he granted
the BBC sometime ago…CKN
Nigerian Mohammed Bello Abubakar, 84, has advised other men not
to follow his example and marry 86 women.
The former teacher and Muslim preacher, who lives in Niger State
with his wives and at least 170 children, says he is able to cope only with the
help of God.
"A man with 10 wives would collapse and die, but my own
power is given by Allah. That is why I have been able to control 86 of
them," he told the BBC.
He says his wives have sought him out because of his reputation
as a healer.
"I don't go looking for them, they come to me. I will
consider the fact that God has asked me to do it and I will just marry
them."
But such claims have alienated the Islamic authorities in
Nigeria, who have branded his family a cult.
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 When you marry a man with 86 wives you know he knows how to
look after them 
Wife Ganiat Bello
Abubakar
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Most Muslim scholars agree that a man is allowed to have four
wives, as long as he can treat them equally.
But Mr Bello Abubakar says there is no punishment stated in the
Koran for having more than four wives.
"To my understanding the Koran does not place a limit and
it is up to what your own power, your own endowment and ability allows,"
he says.
"God did not say what the punishment should be for a man
who has more than four wives, but he was specific about the punishment for
fornication and adultery."
'Order from God'
As Mr Bello Abubakar emerged from his compound to speak to the
BBC, his wives and children broke out into a praise song.
Some
of Mr Bello Abubakar's wives are younger than some of his children
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Most of his wives are less than a quarter of his age - and many
are younger than some of his own children.
The wives the BBC spoke to say they met Mr Bello Abubakar when
they went to him to seek help for various illnesses, which they say he cured.
"As soon as I met him the headache was gone," says
Sharifat Bello Abubakar, who was 25 at the time and Mr Bello Abubakar 74.
"God told me it was time to be his wife. Praise be to God I
am his wife now."
Ganiat Mohammed Bello has been married to the man everyone calls
"Baba" for 20 years.
When she was in secondary school her mother took her for a
consultation with Mr Bello Abubakar and he proposed afterwards.
"I said I couldn't marry an older man, but he said it was
directly an order from God," she says.
She married another man but they divorced and she returned to Mr
Bello Abubakar.
"I am now the happiest woman on earth. When you marry a man
with 86 wives you know he knows how to look after them," she said.
No work
Mr Bello Abubakar and his wives do not work and he has no
visible means of supporting such a large family.
Many
of the wives live three to a room, some have seven children
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He refuses to say how he makes enough money to pay for the huge
cost of feeding and clothing so many people.
Every mealtime they cook three 12kg bags of rice which all adds
up to $915 (£457) every day.
"It's all from God," he says.
Other residents of Bida, the village where he lives in the
northern Nigerian state, say they do not know how he supports the family.
According to one of his wives, Mr Bello Abubakar sometimes asks
his children to go and beg for 200 naira ($1.69, £0.87), which if they all did
so would bring in about $290 (£149).
Most of his wives live in a squalid, unfinished house in Bida;
others live in his house in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital.
He refuses to allow any of his family or other devotees to take
medicine and says he does not believe that malaria exists.
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They were sick and we told God and God said their time has
come
Wife Hafsat Bello
Abubakar
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"As you sit here if you have any illness I can see it and
just remove it," he says.
But not everyone can be cured and one of his wives, Hafsat Bello
Mohammed, says two of her children have died.
"They were sick and we told God and God said their time has
come."
She says that most of the wives see Mr Bello Abubakar as next in
line from the Prophet Muhammad.
Indeed, he claims the Prophet Muhammad speaks to him personally
and gives detailed descriptions of his experiences.
It is a serious claim for a Muslim to make.
"This is heresy, he is a heretic," says Ustaz Abubakar
Siddique, an imam of Abuja's Central Mosque.