Four men have been arrested in the northern Nigerian city of Kano for allegedly carrying out a false marriage on Facebook, which the Islamic enforcement agency said had mocked Islam.Kano is among 12 northern Nigeria states where Sharia law operates and the Hisbah enforcement agency said Wednesday the wedding was perceived to have made a mockery of the institute of marriage.
“We arrested four men for organising a mock wedding on Facebook which has caused public outrage,” Hisbah’s chief Abba Sufi told AFP.
“We arrested them for making a mockery of the sanctity of the institution of marriage,” he said.
The four suspects, aged between 30 and 32, were picked up on Tuesday, days after news circulated that one of them married a young woman on Facebook in a ceremony witnessed by the others, Sufi said.
The groom, Sanusi Abdullahi, confessed to have “jokingly” offered a female Facebook friend who lives in the northeastern city of Maiduguri a bride price of 20,000 naira ($56) during the “online marriage” on the condition that the money would be paid after she moved into his house.
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His three accomplices stood as witnesses in the ceremony which was more of a “banter” between friends.
Sufi said the suspects had never met the ‘bride’ in person and was only a “social media friend” to the four men.
The incident sparked an uproar from radical Muslim clerics, who called for the arrest and prosecution of the suspects.
Sufi said Abdullahi even received death threats on his mobile phone and was assaulted by an attacker while leaving the mosque after evening prayers on Monday before his arrest.