Mass wedding plans deferred in Nigeria, some girls, women marry privately

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Religious leaders and a state lawmaker suspended their plans for a mass wedding of 100 girls and young women in northwest Nigeria after it sparked outrage, but some were married in private ceremonies, the state assembly speaker and one of the girls said on Tuesday.

The wedding plans in largely Muslim Niger state had drawn criticism from women's affairs minister Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye and a local rights group that launched a petition to stop the ceremony. Critics feared the girls, some of them orphans, could be under age.