*Cleric Denies Claim, Threatens Defamation Suit
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A Kaduna-based man, Nasiru Musa Idris, has accused Islamic scholar Sheikh Ahmad Gumi of interfering in his marriage to a Moroccan woman and frustrating efforts by security agencies to investigate what he described as the disappearance and alleged unlawful custody of his wife.
Gumi has, however, strongly denied the allegations, saying the woman is no longer in Nigeria and is currently in Morocco with her parents. The cleric also said he would institute a defamation action against Idris, while declining to discuss details of the dispute because the matter is already before a court.
Idris, speaking in an interview with RFI Hausa, said he first met Gumi at a pharmacy on Isa Kaita Road in Kaduna while he was there with his family and subsequently introduced his Moroccan wife to the cleric.
According to him, his wife had no prior relationship with anyone in Nigeria before he brought her into the country after travelling to Morocco to seek her hand in marriage.
He maintained that the marriage was contracted with the consent of her parents and with relevant documentation involving Nigerian authorities.
“For Dr Gumi, I believe in him because of his character as a religious scholar and leader. I met him at a pharmacy on Isa Kaita Road with my family.
“The Moroccan girl had never known anyone in Nigeria and nobody knew her except through me. I went to seek her hand in marriage in her country, and we had an engagement with the approval of the embassy and the approval of her parents,” Idris said.
He alleged that the disagreement began after Gumi insisted that he obtain another marriage certificate from a Sharia Court despite the documents he said he already possessed from Morocco and Nigeria.
Idris said he informed the cleric that he had marriage documents from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Nigerian Embassy in Morocco, as well as other supporting documents and a police character report.
“I told him that I did not agree with the marriage certificate he told me to obtain. Later, he went to the Sharia Court in Malali and asked them to issue one to him,” Idris alleged.
He further accused Gumi of subsequently becoming involved in efforts to separate him from his wife and of attempting to prevent security agencies from investigating the matter.
Idris called on the cleric to honour a police invitation and submit himself to investigation, insisting that an official inquiry would establish the truth.
“My complaint is that he should come forward and answer the invitation of the police so that an investigation can be conducted. If he is right, there is nothing stopping him from going to the authorities to clear his name,” he said.
Idris alleged that his wife had remained under Gumi’s control for about 11 months.
“For 11 months now, my wife has been in his hands through injustice and ill-treatment. He has no relationship with her; she had never known him. The only place they knew each other was through me,” he alleged.
He also disputed an account that the woman’s mother came to Nigeria and took her daughter away, saying he had personally processed documents that enabled the mother to travel to Nigeria.
According to Idris, he initially took his wife to Gumi after the cleric advised that she be brought for counselling because of her young age.
“Because I trusted him, I took her there. From then on, whenever I called, she did not answer the phone,” he alleged.
Responding to the claims, Gumi denied wrongdoing and said he would not discuss the substance of the dispute because it was already the subject of court proceedings.
“But I will take him to court for defamation against me. As for the issue of the girl, she has already left Nigeria and she is in Morocco happily with her parents.
“I don’t want to say much on an issue already in court, but I will sue him for defamation,” Gumi said.
Gumi’s personal assistant on special assignment and Chairman of the Volunteers of Sultan Bello Mosque, Kaduna, Malam Nasiru Ayuba, popularly known as Dan Agaji, also rejected Idris’ account.
Ayuba specifically denied that Gumi kept the woman in his house, saying she approached the cleric herself seeking assistance over a personal matter.
“The allegation that Malam kept his wife in his house is not true. It was the woman herself who went to Malam to ask him for help,” Ayuba said.
He maintained that Gumi intervened because the woman, as a Moroccan national, sought assistance and allegedly indicated that she could leave for another location if she was not helped.
“She brought the matter herself because she knew what she was going through. Therefore, Malam did what he could and took the matter to court,” he said.
Ayuba accused Idris of attempting to damage Gumi’s reputation on social media and urged supporters of the cleric to remain patient pending the outcome of the court case.
“He only wants to tarnish Malam’s image on the social media,” he alleged.
He added that Gumi’s camp had information concerning the dispute but would refrain from disclosing private matters unless it became necessary.
“We will not expose anyone’s secrets, but if it becomes necessary to expose the secrets, we will do so because we have everything recorded,” Ayuba said.
The dispute therefore remains one of competing allegations: Idris maintains that Gumi improperly interfered in his marriage and should submit to police investigation, while the cleric and his aides deny keeping the woman against her will and insist that she sought assistance herself and has since returned to Morocco.
With the matter said to be before a court and Gumi threatening separate defamation proceedings, the allegations have not been judicially determined.
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