Marriage parties sit to negotiate dowry in Unity State. (Photo: CBS News).

A Conference of traditional chiefs in the Ruweng Administrative Area has resolved to reduce the number of dowries to 10 cows.

This is according to Sunday Paul Agany, a member of the committee charged with following up on the outcome and recommendations of the conference.

The three-day conference brought together more than 1000 participants including chiefs and government officials.

The stakeholders have agreed that the eligible age for marriage shall be 18 years and above for adolescents.

On the other hand, the conference criminalized all forms of forced marriage.

It was further resolved that any parent or relative who tortures girls for refusing to marry shall be held accountable.

“Here, we have some cases whereby a man falls in love with a lady and he has not enough wealth it’s become a problem for a person to get married,” Sunday said.

“So people discussed it at the conference that if u run away with someone’s daughter and you come for the marriage and you don’t have money and they proposed that if you even can afford 10 cows, it will be even a law to govern the dowry issue in customary law.”

The administrative government agreed to ban Child labor, and to establish a traditional Court of Appeal in Biemnhom.

The court will deal with a variety of customary disputes in the border region.

The three days conference was under the theme “Uniting Our Ranks from the Bottom Up: A Search for Social, Political and Economic Transformation in Ruweng.”