Nigeria's mass wedding - and how telling lovers from fraudsters is proving tricky

According to the Hisbah, the support package a couple receives includes essential household items needed to establish a new home: beds, mattresses, bedsheets, pillows, furniture and food supplies.Each bride receives a dowry of 100,000 naira, while a further 100,000 naira is provided as start-up capital to encourage small-scale entrepreneurship and help the couple achieve financial self-reliance after marriage.All intending couples must undergo comprehensive medical examinations - including tests for HIV, hepatitis, pregnancy and genotype compatibility - before being cleared for the programme.Aminudeen revealed that some couples had been disqualified after being discovered to have altered their medical test results.In one case, an intending bride was found to have presented her brother as the groom in an attempt to benefit from the scheme.Local journalist Yusuf Ali Abdallah, who has covered the mass weddings for years, said Nigeria's struggling economy had been fuelling desperation among the applicants this year."As we all know, marriage involves spending money and the country's economy is not bright at the moment," he told the BBC."This makes some people desperate to get on this list."