Kennedy Ibeh, the member representing Obowo constituency in the Imo state House of Assembly, has sponsored a bill that will stop outrageous charges levied on men during traditional weddings in the state.
According to him, the high cost of traditional weddings has contributed greatly to delayed marriage among young ladies in the state.
Providing further details, Ibeh explained that the high cost of traditional weddings and expensive white weddings, scare prospective suitors away and force them to marry from other tribes.
He added that a prospective suitor going to pay for a lady’s dowry may find it tasking to settle for white weddings that also demands huge expenses.
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“Part of the prayers of this bill is that once a suitor pays and completes the bride price of a lady, a clearance certificate should be issued to the groom by the father of the bride, who will present same to the traditional ruler of the community for the final issuance of Customary Marriage Certificate (CMC) at the cost not exceeding N1000.
“No customary marriage in the state including the final stage of Igbankwu ceremony shall not exceed the sum of N180,000 with the exclusion of the bride price which shall not exceed N80,000.
“It is quite unfortunate that this practice has caused so many of our marriageable ladies to remain single and men apprehensive of taking the bold step. This is wrong and we must discourage it at all cost”.
He said that the bill, when eventually passed into law, will correct the anomaly and get more ladies to marry early.
“As you can see, our young men and women are not getting married because of the monetary involvement. It is about time this obnoxious practice was stopped,”.
