Abdullahi Yada’u has divorced his wife after failing to convince her not to vote for President Muhammadu Buhari in next month’s presidential election.

Mr Yada’u, a resident of Kanam Local Government Area of Plateau State, told BBC Hausa Service on Thursday that he divorced his wife, Hafsat Suleiman, because she insisted on voting for President Buhari.

Buhari is seeking a second term in the presidential election scheduled for February 16.

Mr Yada’u stated that previously, both of them supported Buhari in the 2015 elections but he is disappointed with the administration and decided not to vote for him again.

“I told her that she must not vote for him but she insisted which led to a quarrel which attracted the attention of our neighbours, I slapped her and told her to choose between voting for Buhari and staying with me. She ran away.

“Later her parents called me and I narrated to them what transpired between us. But still my wife insisted on voting for Mr Buhari, that’s how I divorced her in the presence of her parents.”

Ibrahim Suleiman, the wife’s elder brother, said they felt very sad over what transpired between the couple.

“We decided to deal with him but our father stopped us from joining issues with him,” he told the BBC.

“He really disgraced us. They have been having issues even in the previous election. She is the one that convinced him to vote for Buhari, now he insisted on voting for Atiku Abubakar. We decided that we will not allow her to go back to him again,” he said.

Mr Abubakar, the candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, is the main challenger to Mr Buhari of the ruling All Progressives Party in next month’s election.