Nasiru Musa Idris, husband of a Moroccan woman at the centre of a dispute involving Islamic cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has alleged that the cleric has kept his wife away from him for about 11 months after he took her to him for counselling at Gumi’s request.
Idris, who spoke in an interview with RFI Hausa, alleged that he had trusted Gumi as a religious scholar and took his young Moroccan wife to the cleric after Gumi asked to counsel her.
He claimed that his wife stopped responding to his calls after the meeting and that efforts to get security agencies to investigate her alleged disappearance were obstructed.
“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,” Idris alleged.
However, Gumi has denied the allegations, saying the Moroccan woman had already left Nigeria and was in Morocco with her parents.
Speaking to Daily Trust, Gumi declined to discuss details of the dispute, saying the matter was already before a court. He, however, threatened to sue Idris for defamation.
“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,” Gumi said.
“I don’t want to say much on an issue already in court, but I will sue him for defamation,” he added.
Idris said he first met Gumi at a pharmacy on Isa Kaita Road in Kaduna State while he was there with members of his family and later introduced his Moroccan wife to him.
He said his wife had never known anyone in Nigeria before he travelled to Morocco to seek her hand in marriage, adding that the marriage was conducted with the approval of her parents and relevant authorities.
“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,” he said.
According to Idris, the dispute began after Gumi allegedly insisted that he obtain another marriage certificate from a Sharia Court despite having marriage documents issued in Morocco and Nigeria.
“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 said he had presented documents relating to the marriage, including documents from the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Nigerian embassy in Morocco, as well as other supporting documents and a police character report.
Idris further alleged that Gumi subsequently sought the separation of the marriage and interfered with attempts by security agencies to investigate the matter.
He called on the cleric to honour a police invitation and submit himself to investigation.
“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 also disputed claims that his wife’s mother travelled to Nigeria and took her daughter back to Morocco.
He said he personally processed the documents that enabled his wife to travel to Nigeria and maintained that he took her to Gumi only because the cleric had asked him to bring her for counselling because she was young.
“Because I trusted him, I took her there. From then on, whenever I called, she did not answer the phone,” he alleged.
Meanwhile, Malam Nasiru Ayuba, popularly known as Dan Agaji, chairman of the Volunteers of Sultan Bello Mosque, Kaduna, and Gumi’s personal assistant on special assignment, denied that the cleric kept Idris’ wife in his house.
“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 alleged that the Moroccan woman approached Gumi over a personal problem and sought his intervention.
“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 also accused Idris of attempting to damage Gumi’s reputation on social media.
“He only wants to tarnish Malam’s image on the social media,” he alleged.
He said Gumi’s supporters would not disclose details of Idris’ private affairs unless 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.
