Nigerian man with 86 wives finally slapped with 'fatwa'

London, Oct 24 : A Nigerian man with 86 wives has fallen foul of Nigeria's Islamic laws and is facing a 'fatwa' imposed by an Islamic body.

The 84-year-old Mohammed Bello Masaba has been facing legal charges and is currently behind the bars.

Jamaatu Nasril Islam, an Islamic body in Nigeria has slapped a fatwa - or religious edict - calling for the death of Bello Masaba,

Bello Masaba, a Muslim, came into limelight after he claimed that he had special God-given powers and challenged accepted interpretation of the Islamic holy book, the Koran.

But the father of more than 150 children does not regret his actions, and says that he can still marry.

"If God permits me, I will marry more than 86 wives. A normal human being could not marry 86 - but I can only by the grace of God," The Christian Science Monitor quoted him as saying.

"I married 86 women and there is peace in the house - if there is peace, how can this be wrong?" he added.

"In years past, he kept quiet and nobody bothered him. But when he comes out and says publicly that anyone can challenge his interpretation of the Koran, then he is creating tension," said Yahaya Abubakar, Emir of Bida.

Abubakar also called Bello Masaba to the palace and gave him a choice: divorce 82 of his 86 wives or leave Bida forever.

"We requested he either divorce 82 of them, or leave our sharia lands as I couldn't guarantee his safety if he stayed," he said.

Some of Bello Masaba's wives are younger than some of his sons and daughters.

But they have all praises for their husband.

"We are very happy. He's a good man, an honest man, and caring," says Hajia Hafsat Bello, who is 49 years old and Bello Masaba's third wife and mother of four of his children.

The emir and the sharia courts have now left Bello Masaba's fate to the magistrate courts where he faces charges of insulting the religious creed for his inflammatory comments about Islam.

ANI