Plateau couple divorce over Nigerian elections as husband supports Atiku and wife backs Buhari

PLATEAU State voter Abdullahi Yada’u has divorced his wife Hafsat Suleiman after the two of them fell out over Nigeria's forthcoming elections with him supporting former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and his spouse rooting for President Muhammadu Buhari.

Nigeria goes to the polls on February 16 and the presidential battle is considered a two-horse race between the incumbent President Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Alhaji Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Pundits believe the election is too close to call as the two candidates appear to be running neck and neck in the opinion polls.

As the battle divides Nigerians, Mr Yada’u, a resident of Kanam Local Government Area of Plateau State, decided to divorce his wife after failing to convince her not to vote for President Buhari. Mr Yada’u told the BBC Hausa Service that he decided to divorce Hafsat because she insisted on voting for Buhari.

He said both of them supported President Buhari in the 2015 elections but this time, he felt disappointed with the administration and decided not to vote for him again. Unable to convince his wife to join him after repeated arguments, Mr Yada'u decided to send her back to her parents.

Mr Yada’u added: “I told her that she must not vote for him but she insisted which led to a quarrel which attracted the attention of our neighbours, I slapped her and told her to choose between voting for Buhari and staying with me, so she ran away.

“Later her parents called me and I narrated to them what transpired between us but still my wife insisted on voting for Buhari. That is why I divorced her in the presence of her parents.”

Ibrahim Suleiman, the wife’s elder brother, added: “We decided to deal with Yada’u but our father stopped us from joining issues with him. He really disgraced us and they have been having issues even in the previous election.

“She is the one that convinced him to vote for Buhari, now he insisted on voting for Mr Atiku Abubakar. We decided that we will not allow her to go back to him again.”