Nigerian with 86 wives arrested
Nigerian man with 86 wives, Mohammadu Bello Abubakar, has been
arrested by an Islamic court for refusing to divorce all but four of
them.
He was picked up in a pre-dawn raid on his house in Bida, Niger
state and charged with "insulting religious creed" and "unlawful
marriages".
A Sharia court judge denied him bail until another hearing on
October 6.
Last week he won a court injunction preventing authorities banishing
him if he refused to divorce his wives.
Mr Bello Abubakar, an Islamic preacher, has more than 170 children.
Divorce
Local traditional rulers told him to divorce his wives by the end of
August or be evicted from his home.
A court was due to sit on Thursday to decide if the order violated
his human rights.
Lawyers for Mr Bello Abubakar said he had not broken any law.
Mr Abubakar says there is no punishment stated in the Koran for
having more than four wives.
Niger is one of the Muslim majority states to have reintroduced
Sharia punishments since 2000.
Several people have been sentenced to death for adultery by Sharia
courts but none of these sentences has been carried out.
Muslim scholars agree that it is allowed in Islam to have up to four
wives, as long as you treat them equally.
Source:BBC
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