Mohammadu Bello Abubakar aged 84 is a Nigerian religious leader with 86 wives and 170 children. He has now accepted an Islamic decree ordering him to divorce all but four of them, local authorities say.
Last week one of Nigeria's top Islamic bodies, the Jamatu Nasril Islam, sentenced him to death.The sentence was lifted but he was threatened with eviction from his home. Earlier, Mr Abubakar had challenged Islamic scholars, saying there was no punishment stated in the Koran for having more than four wives.
"I have not contravened any established law that would warrant my being banished from the land... There is no law that says one must not marry more than four wives," the AFP news agency reported himas saying.
"All my wives are with children and some of these are people I have married and stayed with for over 30 years. How can they expect me to leave them within two days?" he reportedly told local newspapers.Niger is one of the Muslim majority states to have reintroduced Sharia punishments since 2000.Several people have been sentenced to death for adultery by Sharia courts but none of these sentences have been carried out.
Mohammadu Bello Abubakar aged 84 is a Nigerian religious leader with 86 wives and 170 children. He has now accepted an Islamic decree ordering him to divorce all but four of them, local authorities say. 
