250 couples wed in Kano

BY Abdulsalam Muhammad

…Get N20,000 from govt, sewing machines from Sambo
KANO—No fewer than 250 couples were joined in matrimony in Kano State, weekend, during the second batch of mass wedding organised by Hisbah Board, a parastatal in the state.

Unlike the previous one held May 15, where 100 couples took the marriage vow at the Kano Central Mosque, weekend’s ceremony was decentralised as 220 couples wedded in their respective local government areas, while 30 were joined in the state capital.

Among the newly-wed was an octogenarian, Malam Uba AbdulRahaman, 82, who took a 70-year-old woman, Amina Usman, as wife in the ceremony that had Hajiya Amina Sambo, wife of Vice President Namadi Sambo, top government official, clerics, traditional rulers, businessmen and women in attendance.

The couples were lectured by the Chief Imam of the Kano Central Mosque on their duties and responsibilities.
Speaking on the occasion, Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, who had earlier presented bed and bedding, bags of rice, cartons of spaghetti, household items and N20,000 each as take-off capital, said his administration had committed N46.6 million to the project.

He said the state government introduced mass wedding as a measure to tackle the high rate of divorce cases and reduce poverty.

He pointed out that poverty was the major factor that leads to early breakage of marriages in the state, a development that informed his decision to initiate poverty alleviation programmes, focused on youths and women. Hajiya Sambo donated 250 sewing machines, worth about N3.73 million to all the brides.