Parents of the 4 year-old-girl who was “married” to a 54-year-old man at the riverside settlement of Akeddei in Sagbama Local Government Area of Bayelsa State and three others were on Thursday handed a temporary relief by the state government through the Gender Response Initiative Team, GRIT, over the alleged child marriage.
However, they insisted that the marriage rites were a traditional practice termed “Koripamo” done to save the little girl’s life.
The state government team was made up of the Chairman of the Gender Response Initiative Team(GRiT), Dr. Dise Ogbise, the Bayelsa State Coordinator of the Child Protection Network, Kizito Andah, CPN and the Bayelsa State Chairman of BANGOF, Comrade Taritei Boco, DO Foundation, NAWOJ, other Non-governmental Organization, NGOs, National Human Rights Commission and Civil Society Groups,CSOs.
The team heard the submissions from the father of the girl, Elder Morris Aboma, the supposed husband, Akpos Napoleon and the Paramount ruler, Chief Moneyman Binabo.
In their separate submissions before the team of experts, they all insisted that the purported child marriage was a traditional practice termed “Koripamo” in order to save little girl’s life.
They explained to the team that it was a cultural practice in Akeddei Community, Oyakiri Clan in Sagbama Local Government Area whereby if a girl child always fell sick a man would be required to drop a symbolic amount as marriage rites in order to save the little girl from dying, saying what transpired between the girl and Akpos Napoleon was not a formal marriage but an Ijaw cultural practice called “ Koripamo”
They noted that whenever the traditional rite of “Koripamo” was conducted the man who paid the “token “ would neither be required to take her as a wife nor would he stop her from marrying any man of her choice when she is an adult. According to him, this can be done on a boy child or girl child.
Father of the girl, Elder Morris Aboma, who spoke in his Ijaw vernacular, said her daughter was always sick to the point of death, adding that according to Akeddei tradition the only way to save her life was for a man to pay a symbolic marriage token and save the child’s life and that it had nothing to do with a real marriage.
Source | Vanguard
