Boko Haram administers marriage for Christians, Muslims in LGA occupied in Niger, girls under pressure

In Shiroro LGA, Boko Haram insurgents in charge.

The terrorists are proving this by taking over marriage administration in the LGA of Niger. They settle disputes too, preventing locals from reporting to police and courts.

It’s no doubt coercive, and hard on girls.

Residents of affected communities said the insurgents have ordered them not  to recognise any constituted authority.

A resident of the area, and Co-Convener of Concerned Shiroro Youths, Bello Ibrahim, said the terrorists were in Kawure, the village of former Senator Representing Niger East, David Umaru.

“But there was operation to dislodge them by the joint military task force,” he told the Daily Trust.

“Fortunately they were dispatched but after a while, since military base is not stationed there, they reconvened.

“So now, they are not only in Kawure, they have also extended their tentacles to Communities like Kuregbe, Awulo, and host of other Communities.

“In Awulo and Kuregbe Communities, they assembled the locals, both Muslims and Christians, and gave them marching order that any girl that is 12 years old should be married off.

“There is no (sic) any form of law in the area, aside from Boko Haram’s… If locals have any feud, either family issue of community problem, they report to them for resolution.

“No any (sic) case should be reported to police or court or any constituted authority for resolution.”

Another resident told the newspaper the criminals operate freely.

“They are operating freely and mingling freely with the villagers.

“They have become constituted authority in those villages. And Kaure, Awulo and Kuregbe are their operational grounds. They coerce locals to obey them as their authority.

“In the entire Chukuba and Kuregbe ward, it is Boko Haram elements that are operating there not bandits that we know.”

The Chairman, Shiroro Local Government, Suleiman Chukuba confirmed the influx of Boko Haram elements, saying.

He said the residents believe that they were Boko Haram elements because of their mode of preaching.

“They told villagers that they have money to help them and that they have guns to give them to fight government. And that is the same doctrine we know Boko Haram elements promote,” he said.

But residents said they had not recruited the locals.

The terrorists only force the villagers to not report any case or feud to police or court, and they fix the marital age for girls.