Families of two parties in a marriage between a final-year Junior High School (JHS) girl and a 53-year-old truck driver have agreed to annul the marriage with immediate effect. The Tafo–Pankrono Divisional Police Command, which was investigating the case, confirmed this in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Kumasi. The girl, who is preparing for her Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in Kumasi in April this year, returned to school on January 24, 2011 after her father had forced her to marry Baba Sey, the Nigeria-based truck driver, in January this year. According to the police, the girl had been staying with Baba Sey’s mother, Hajia Nafisa, at Ahwiaa in Kumasi since she was eight when her mother passed away. They said the girl’s father, who stays at Yeji in the Brong Ahafo Region, sent her to stay with Hajia Nafisa after his wife died and since then the girl had been staying with Hajia in Kumasi. The Divisional Commander, Chief Superintendent of Police Mr Victor Adusa-Poku, said the police got wind of the case after the marriage had been contracted. He said investigations revealed that the truck driver visited his mother some time ago and saw the girl, adding that notwithstanding the huge age difference between Baba and the girl, he proposed to marry her and, without any hesitation, Hajia, who had been sponsoring the girl’s education for the past nine years, agreed and promised to see the girl’s father to perform the marriage rites. Mr Adusa-Poku said when Hajia informed the girl’s father about the marriage proposal from her son, he agreed to offer her daughter in marriage. He said the agreement, in spite of the age difference, might have come from the maintenance Hajia Nafisa had been offering the young girl ever since her mother died. He said, the widespread media reports and the pressure from various groups might have had much effect on both families, for which reason they decided to annul the marriage immediately. When the Daily Graphic visited the Uthmania JHS which the girl attends, the Head Teacher, Mr Muhammad Salis, also confirmed that the families of the two parties had agreed to annul the marriage. Describing the girl as brilliant, with a lot of potential, he said he was waiting for her to finish her examination in April to see what could be done to support her financially. He disclosed that during his interaction with the girl’s father, it came out that he was not in a position to finance the girl’s education beyond JHS. The girl, the third of five children, is said to be planning to study Medicine at the university and is, therefore, not leaving anything to chance to achieve her goal in life. Source: Daily Graphic