Nigeria: No, Governor of Nigeria's Rivers State Hasn't Set Up a 'Marriage Monitoring Team'

22 August 2022
Africa Check (Johannesburg)
By Catherine Olorunfemi

"Marrying in Rivers State without having up to N5million is illegal," begins a message doing the rounds on Facebook in Nigeria. N is the Nigerian naira.

The message claims that Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers state in the Delta region of Nigeria's far southeast, has set up a "Marriage Monitoring Team" employing 10,000 young people as a "Marriage Task Force".

It ends with: "The Monitoring Team is to ensure any Rivers Man willing to marry must have at least 5 Million Naira or a property in the equivalent of the stipulated amount."

But does this marriage monitoring team really exist? We checked.

'Spurious and morally offensive'

The message doesn't say where or when Wike announced the task force, or even why. And it hasn't been reported by any credible Nigerian news outlet.

Instead, local news report that the Rivers state government has dismissed the claim as false.

The reports quote a statement by the governor's media aide: "The government considers as spurious and morally offensive, the viral report alleging that the state had ordered that any Rivers man willing to marry must have at least N5 million or a property in the equivalent of the stipulated amount."

The claim is false.

Read the original story, with links and other resources.
Africa Check is a non-partisan organisation which promotes accuracy in public debate and in the media. Twitter @AfricaCheck and www.africacheck.org

Tagged:
Copyright © 2022 Africa Check. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica publishes around 600 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.