A young girl, identified as Aisha who resides in Albarkawa area in Gusau, Zamfara, on Sunday, September 8, 2019 set herself ablaze over the inability of her fiance to marry her because he found it difficult to pay her dowry of N17,000.
Her fiancee who was identified as Umar was asked by her parents to present himself to the family for marital engagement. The young man was however not financially buoyant enough to pay for the dowry of N17,000 which the girl’s father demanded.
In the words of Aisha’s neighbour who was with her when she decided to take her life after learning that her fiance who had dated her for a long time did not have money to pay for her dowry to commence their wedding, “She brought a gallon of petrol and a matchbox.
“She got her self drenched in the petrol and struck a match stick and within a second she got engulfed in flames. Even before setting her self ablaze, her younger sister had tried hard to stop her from taking the dangerous decision by flinging the matchbox from her hand as any time she attempted to strike the matches the younger sister would stop her until when she became tired of stopping and went away.”
“The girl then ran outside the house screaming for help until some good Samaritans arrived and put out the raging flames tormenting her. The girl’s father said he had no money to take her to the hospital as he could only boast of N750 at the time the incident happened,” he said.
The young girl was burnt badly and is being treated with Orthodox and other traditional medicines at home.
