HUSBAND SCARCITY: 8000 WOMEN PROTEST IN ZAMFARA, NIGERIA

No fewer than 8,000 women on Thursday stormed the Zamfara Hisbah Commission to protest the scarcity of men in Zamfara.

Apparently the women are seeking the state government's assistance to enable them to get married.

Led by the Chairperson of the Zamfara Widows Association, Hajiya Suwaiba Isa, and the patron, Alhaji Sa'idu Goshe, the women said they were not living a normal life and needed husbands to become whole.

"Many of us cannot afford two meals in a day because there are no men to support us," they said.

The patron said the association had over 8,000 women, comprising 5,380 divorcees, 2,200 widows, 1,200 orphans and 80 others, whom he said, were looking for men to marry.

He said the women also needed assistance to purchase household items such as beds, mattresses and other basic necessities needed to move to their husbands' houses.

Goshe appealed to the commission to assist the association in screening suitors for the women and said the screening would determine the suitors' health status, source of livelihood and ability to maintain a family.