The Federal Ministry of Women Affairs said it has petitioned the police over the plan and filed a lawsuit to stop the marriages pending an investigation to ascertain the age of the orphans and whether they consented to the marriages.

Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Women Affairs has said it is investigating a plan by a lawmaker in central Niger state to marry off some 100 female orphans of unknown ages later this month.

Speaker of the Niger State House of Assembly Abdulmalik Sarkin-Daji disclosed last week that he would sponsor the mass wedding last week but called off the ceremony following widespread outrage.

Speaking to reporters in the capital Abuja on Tuesday, Minister of Women Affairs Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye condemned the plan to marry off the girls, some of whom were orphaned by insurgency, as “appalling”.

Kennedy-Ohanenye said she had petitioned the police over Sarkin-Daji’s plan and filed a lawsuit to stop the marriages pending an investigation to ascertain the age of the orphans and whether they consented to the marriages.

“This is totally unacceptable by the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and by the government” of Nigeria,” the minister said, adding that the future of the girls should be a priority and that Sarkin-Daji should have empowered the children.

Kennedy-Ohanenye said the Women Affairs Ministry will take responsibility for the girls’ education and vocational training.

“As the speaker did not think about empowering these women or sending them to school or giving them some kind of training support financially. The Women Affairs have decided to take it up and we are going to educate the children.

“Those that do not want to go to school, we will train them in a skill, empower them with sustainable empowerment machines to enable that child build his or her life and make up her mind who and when to get married.

“If for any reason the speaker tries to do contrary to what I have just mentioned, there will be a serious legal battle between him and the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs.”

In announcing his support last week for the mass wedding of the orphans, whose relatives were killed during attacks by armed bandits, Sarkin-Daji said it was part of his support to his constituents following an appeal for wedding funding by local traditional and religious leaders.

The mass wedding had been scheduled for May 24.

“That support I intend to give for the marriage of those orphans, I’m withdrawing it,” he said. “The parents can have the support [money], if they wish, let them go ahead and marry them off. As it is right now, I’m not threatened by the action of the minister.”

Despite national laws prohibiting it, forced or arranged marriage is a common phenomenon in Nigeria, especially among rural communities in the predominantly Muslim north, where religious and cultural norms such as polygamy favour the practice.

Poor families often use forced marriage to ease financial pressure, and the European Union Agency for Asylum says girls who refuse could face repercussions such as neglect, ostracism, physical assault and rape.

Thirty percent of girls in Nigeria are married before they turn 18, according to Girls Not Brides, a global network of more than 1,400 civil society groups working to end child marriage.