Lakurawa Terrorists Now Dictating Bride Price In Niger State – N1,500 Or Else

Last Sunday, armed members of the Lakurawa terrorist group walked into Zugurma community in Borgu Local Government Area of Niger State in broad daylight and stayed for hours. They gathered residents and announced that any girl above 15 years must be married off. They also fixed the bride price, known as sadaki, at N1,500. Let that sink in. These are armed men who have no legal authority, no mandate from any government, and they are now dictating marriage terms to Nigerian citizens.

A community source told SaharaReporters that the terrorists preached to the people and issued these directives as rules residents were expected to follow. Zugurma is not some remote hamlet that nobody knows. It sits on the only good road connecting Borgu to Mokwa. The same road that people in Borgu use to connect with the rest of the country. So if these terrorists can walk into a community on a strategic road and impose marriage laws without any resistance from security agencies, what exactly is stopping them from taking over the entire local government?

Residents recalled that weeks earlier, hundreds of armed men moved from Kebbi State towards Borgu on motorcycles. Hundreds of motorcycles, possibly over a thousand fighters, and they moved through the area without resistance. Now they are setting bride price caps and ordering child marriages. The question I keep asking myself is this: at what point does the Nigerian government decide that enough is enough? These are not ghosts. They are moving in convoys of hundreds of motorcycles in broad daylight. If the authorities cannot secure a community on a major road, what hope do the hinterland villages have?