Nigerian man to divorce 82 wives

Mr Bello Abubakar challenged Muslim scholars two weeks ago

A Nigerian religious leader with 86 wives has accepted an Islamic decree ordering him to divorce all but four of them, local authorities say.

A spokesman for the emir of Bida told that Mohammadu Bello Abubakar, 84, agreed on Saturday to comply with the decree.

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 him as saying.

Many of the wives live three to a room, some have seven children

“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.

The former teacher and Islamic preacher lives in Niger State with his wives and at least 170 children.

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.

Actor Freeman ‘in divorce action’

Divorce rumours about Colley-Lee and Freeman surfaced in June

Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman and his wife of 24 years  are to divorce, according to his lawyer.

Bill Luckett told US cable TV show Access Hollywood that Freeman and costume designer Myrna Colley-Lee “are involved in a divorce action”.

He added: “And for legal and practical purposes the pair have been separated since December 2007.”

The 71-year-old Dark Knight star is recovering after being involved in a serious car accident on Sunday.

Freeman was driving a car belonging to his friend, Demaris Meyer, when he lost control and veered off a highway close to his home in Charleston, Mississippi.

The car flipped over several times before landing in a ditch.

Arm injuries

Bill Rogers, who saw the accident happen, recalled a conversation he had with Freeman at the scene: “He said that she had offered him a ride home; that they were friends, and she didn’t really know the way and so he was going to drive the vehicle.”

The pair were airlifted to Memphis’s Regional Medical Centre, about 90 miles (145km) north of where the accident occurred.

The actor suffered a broken arm, broken elbow and minor shoulder injuries.

Mr Luckett, who also co-owns a blues club with Freeman, visited the actor in hospital on Wednesday. He said: “It’s going to take a few months because he got banged up pretty badly actually.”

“He’s in good spirits today and he hopes his golf swing is going to be better than ever now with his fixed arm,” the lawyer added.

Freeman married Myrna in June 1984. He also has two children with his first wife, Jeanette Adair Bradshaw, whom he was married to for 12 years from 1967.

Mechanic

Freeman won a best supporting actor Oscar for boxing drama Million Dollar Baby in 2005.

He has twice been nominated in the leading actor category – for The Shawshank Redemption in 1995 and Driving Miss Daisy in 1990.

Last year it was announced the actor would play former South African president Nelson Mandela in forthcoming film The Human Factor.

His first credited film appearance was in the 1971 movie Who Says I Can’t Ride a Rainbow!

Prior to that, he had worked as a mechanic in the US Air Force.

His film appearances include Se7en, Unforgiven and the rebooted Batman franchise.