Governor Mohammed Abubakar of Bauchi State on Friday gave out a 20 year-old physically-challenged woman, Hauwa Muazu, in marriage to Mr Shehu Idris, a staff of the Specialists’ Hospital, Bauchi.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the governor and his wife, Mrs Hadiza Mohammed, served as the father and mother of the bride, who grew up at the State Orphanage, having been abandoned by her unidentified parents, 20 years ago.
The wedding, which attracted a bride price of N20, 000, took place at Gwallaga Central mosque, Bauchi, presided by the Chief Imam of the mosque, Sheikh Ibrahim Idris.
Speaking to NAN after the wedding formalities, the groom, 36-year-old Idris, said he met his “sweet heart” barely “one month ago”, and got attracted by her smashing beauty.
“The bride was introduced to me by someone just barely one month ago and I visited her immediately at the Orphanage.
“I declared my intention to marry her because I love her; she is a lady with dignity and respect,” said Idris, who already has a wife before marrying the orphan.
“She (Hauwa) is an orphan and I know that she is government’s child; I promise to accord her full respect and pledge not to betray her either,” he said.
Idris said that the bride would be accommodated in a separate apartment to ensure peaceful coexistence in the family.
Also speaking to NAN, the bride expressed delight for bidding farewell to spinsterhood, adding that as an orphan brought up completely in an Orphanage Home, the joy of having her own nuclear family knew no bounds.
Mrs Maryam Zubairu, Head of the Orphanage, told NAN that a care giver had been attached to the bride to help in domestic activities considering her physical condition.
She said the bride was brought into the Home at infancy about 20 years ago and was, before her marriage, the oldest inmate of the Home.
“She is physically-challenged, as such, our dear bride remained in the Orphanage till recently when her groom, Mr Shehu Idris, a civil servant in the state, came to seek her hand in marriage,” she said.
It would be recalled that on Wednesday, wife of the State Governor, Mrs Hadiza Mohammed, had organised a pre-wedding luncheon for the bride, where she said government would continue to support orphans in the state.
“The bride is not an orphan completely because she has the Governor as her father and me as her mother.
“We will continue to support her even in her marital home,” she said.