Underage Marriage: We Were Blackmailed - Mark

The Senate President, Sen. David Mark, on Wednesday in Abuja said that some senators were blackmailed into voting that section 29 (4) (b) be retained in the 1999 Constitution.

Mark said this when he received different women groups under the aegis of Gender and Constitution Reform Network (GECORN), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) who visited him.
Some of the women groups consist of former Ministers of Education, Mrs Obiageli Ezekwesili, Mrs Josephine Anenih and Justice Mariam Uwais.

``They were simply blackmailed and on that day, if they didn’t do what they did, nobody knows the outcome or what the consequences will be today.
``The people outside can say this man, you are a Muslim and you didn’t vote for something that is of Islamic interest,’’ Mark said.

The Senate president said that it was the desire of the senate to remove the clause since out of the 101 senators who voted the first time, 85 voted that it should be removed.
 ``There was hardly any dissenting vote the first time but once it got mixed up with so many other issues, it didn’t get the required 73 votes anymore.’’ 

He said that the castigation of the Senate by Nigerians was largely due to misunderstanding.
Mark reiterated that the Senate was on the side of the people and that was why the Constitution Review Committee had recommended the deletion of that clause since it was discriminatory against women.

Mark promised that the Senate would try to re-visit the issue with the aim of deleting the clause from the constitution and stressed the need for Nigerians to get more education on the issue.