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A lot of Benue men now elope with their girlfriends instead of getting married properly, the state’s First Lady, Mrs Eunice Ortom has observed.
She attributed the development to the outrageously high bride price in the Tiv-land.
Speaking when she paid a courtesy call to the Tor-Tiv elect, James Ayatse in Makurdi, Mrs. Ortom who runs the Eunice Spring of Life Foundation (ESLF), has now appealed that the bride prices in Tiv land be brought down so that men can get married when they are due.
According to her, the high demands made on young men seeking to marry Tiv daughters were discouraging the men who feel the women are being sold to them.
“Such high demands discourage many bachelors from even attempting to get married; the result is that many young girls cannot find husbands,” she said.
While noting that bride price payment was sacrosanct, Mrs. Ortom cautioned parents against selling their daughters especially since the relationship between in-laws remains, long after such marriage rites.
She stressed that affordable bride prices would restore the sanctity of the marriage institution.
It also believed that the inability of the young women to get married on time force them into prostitution and other vices.