“Leave the marriage” — Yobe APC chairman faces backlash over call to divorce anti-APC husbands

The Yobe State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Mohammed Gadaka, has faced backlash after telling married women to leave their husbands if they were prevented from voting for the party in the upcoming general elections.

Gadaka made the controversial remark on Thursday in Nangere town while receiving hundreds of defectors into the APC.

“If your husband won’t allow you to vote APC, leave the marriage. I will pay your bride price and marry you,” he said.

He also pledged to pay the bride price of any woman who left her marriage because of her support for the APC.

The comment sparked widespread criticism, with residents and Islamic scholars describing it as reckless and provocative and warning that such remarks could undermine family values.

Amid the backlash, Gadaka later withdrew the statement in a 42-second video shared on the Facebook page of Governor Mai Mala Buni’s Director General of Press and Media Affairs, Mamma Mohammed.

The APC chairman said his comment had been misconstrued, explaining that it was intended as a joking banter rooted in an age-old practice of teasing between his Ngamo people and the Kare Kare-speaking people.

“My statement was just a usual joking banter and does not in any way represent the ideals I stand for or intended to encourage divorce among married people,” Gadaka said.

“I offer apologies for my statement, and I hereby withdraw it,” he added.