The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has called on the government of the United Kingdom to revoke the visa issued to Sani Yerima, a former governor of Zamfara State and a serving senator at heart of a scandal involving his marriage to a 13-year-old Egyptian girl.
The commission also called on the UK government to include Mr. Yerima’s name on the no fly list into the UK.
According to a complaint filed by the commission last month, Mr. Yerima, 49, arranged the marriage with the girl after paying her family a $100,000 as dowry, and when he couldn’t procure a visa for the girl to travel from Egypt to Nigeria, he had her brought into the country through neighbouring Niger Republic for the marriage ceremony which took place in Abuja.
This event has, over the past weeks, caused quite a stir, as several human right groups have called for sanctions to be imposed on the senator. The senate, last week, asked its ethics committee to investigate the matter following a petition from various women activists.
Excerpts of the petition, written to the British Embassy by the NHRC and made available to NEXT, reads: “We therefore are respectfully urging her Majesty’s Government to revoke Mr. Ahmed Sani Yerima’s entry visa into the United Kingdom and to take steps to include him on the “no fly” list into United Kingdom.
We urge you further to cause a “paedophile alert” or an approximate or similar alert to be issued across the European Union in respect of Mr. Yerima.”
Seeking Interpol help
The head of the commission, Roland Ewubare, also told NEXT that the petition will be circulated to all embassies within the week.
“The letter goes out to all embassies on Tuesday. Formal complaint to Interpol requesting an international warrant of arrest will go out on Thursday from a coalition of NGO’s and the NHRC,” he said.
The commission had previously written a petition to the national assembly to investigate Mr. Yerima for his alleged marriage to a minor in violation of the provisions of section 21 of the Child Rights Act and other international and human rights instruments, to which Nigeria is a party.
Under the child protection law, which is enforceable in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, a woman must be 18years before being able to consent to marriage. However, the law is not executed in all the 36 states of Nigeria and activists say child brides have often been married off in Muslim communities after their first period.
The petition also stated that this was not the first child the former governor had taken as a wife.
“The senator is in the habit of marrying minors and has gained notoriety in enticing girls to marry him, having contracted one in 2006 with a 15-year-old (Hauwa’u) whom Mr. Yerima allegedly caused to drop out of school at JSS 3, as his fourth wife,” the petition reads.