No fewer than 20 out of the 125 mass marriages contracted and sponsored by the Sokoto State Government in January, 2014, have collapsed, an official has disclosed.
The Chairman of the state’s Sunnah Marriage Mediation Council, the organiser of the marriage, Alhaji AliyuKofar-Rini, disclosed this in Sokoto on Saturday while commenting on the current state of the marriages.
He told newsmen that the state government had in January, 2014 spent over N30m in sponsoring the mass marriages of 125 couples.
“The state government paid the dowries and provided all the weddingclothes and materials for both the 125 grooms and 125 brides.
“Out of these marriages, 20 had sincecollapsed leading to divorces, sequelto mainly unemployment and other problems such as incompatibility of the couples”, he added.
Kofar-Rini added that the council wasnow working round the clock to ensure that the remaining 105 mass marriages were saved from failure.
The chairman explained that the council had concluded arrangementsfor the second phase of such marriages among 250 couples. (NAN)