Only Virgins Deserve Bride Price – Reno Omokri

Former presidential aide, Reno Omokri, has stirred controversy by stating that only virgin women should be given bride price, asserting that any financial demand for non-virgins under the guise of bride price amounts to extortion.

In a post shared on Sunday via his official X (formerly Twitter) handle, Omokri argued that many people in Africa have misinterpreted and misused the concepts of dowry and bride price, stressing that the two are fundamentally different.

> “There is a huge difference between a dowry and a bride price. In this part of the world, we often use the terms interchangeably — but they are not the same,” he wrote.

According to Omokri, a dowry refers to property or money given by a bride’s parents to the couple on the wedding day. This practice, he said, is common in Europe, Asia, and parts of the Middle East and reflects the idea that a wife is a support to her husband, citing Genesis 2:18 from the Bible.

On the other hand, he explained that bride price is a traditional and religious payment given by a man to the family of a virgin woman as part of the marriage process. He referenced Exodus 22:17 to back his point:

“If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, he must still pay the bride-price for virgins.”