ABUJA - A Nigerian Federal Court will hear a case over whether the West African nation's religious freedom laws protected a senator's right to marry a 13-year-old girl. The lawsuit filed by an Islamic council on behalf of Senator Ahmad Sani Yerima challenges Nigeria's child protection laws that ban women from being married before age 18. The suit, obtained Friday by The Associated Press, also claims groups that vocally opposed Yerima's alleged marriage to 13-year-old Egyptian girl invaded his privacy. Human rights groups say the 49-year-old lawmaker married the girl at the National Mosque in Abuja after paying her family a $100,000 dowry. The marriage has drawn fresh questions about the role of religion in a country of 150 million people split between Christians and Muslims.
