Mohammed Bello Abubakar

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Mohammed Bello Abubakar, also known as Mohammed Bello Masaba, was an 84-year old Nigerian man (WP) who stirred up controversy in his hometown of Wikipedia:Bida, Wikipedia:Niger State, when he married 86 wives, and fathered 170 children. Islamic scholars agree that muslims can marry as many as four wives when they are all treated equally. However, due to his extensive polygamy, and for being outspoken, he was charged under Wikipedia:Sharia law and sent to prison.

Bello boasted:

"If God permits me, I will marry more than 86 wives. A normal human being could not marry 86 – but I can only by the grace of God," a defiant Bello Masaba told The Christian Science Monitor during a recent prison interview. "I married 86 women and there is peace in the house – if there is peace, how can this be wrong?"

Bello had worked as a teacher and Wikipedia:Imam during his life. He lived with his family in an entire apartment block. Bello claims that he never pursued his wives, and claims that they sought him out due to his renowed reputation as a Wikipedia:healer. Many of his wives were much younger than he was, and a few were younger than some of his elder children. In interviews with Wikipedia:Al Jazeera English, his wives claimed that he was a good husband and father. Although the Wikipedia:Quran states that a man may marry four wives, Bello claimed that when the Quran set a law, it must also set a punishment for offenders, and no punishment was given for this particular offense. Despite this, Bello was arrested in late 2008 (WP) by Islamic authorities and tried before a Sharia (WP) court.

Thousands of protestors gathered to protest his actions, and claimed that if he were released, they would not allow him to return to his home. Meanwhile, his wives announced their outrage at his arrest. At his trial, he was asked to divorce 82 of his wives. Due to his persistant refusal to do so, he was sentenced to death, but the sentence was lifted when he agreed to the mass divorce in early September 2008. However, he still faced eviction from his home. The case was reported throughout Nigeria and around the world, and angered many Nigerian Muslims. Following the case, Bello advised other men not to follow his example:

"A man with ten wives would collapse and die, but my own power is given by Allah. That is why I have been able to control 86 of them," he told the BBC.

More recently, "the man with 86 wives" has reappeared in articles concerning an alleged plot to disenfranchise his family. Moreover, members of his family were prevented by thugs from registering to vote. Nine member of the Masaba family were injured by thugs whenever they attempted to register to vote.