“Marriage does not stop anyone from getting educated,” Mr Yerima said when told that marrying underage girls violates their rights to education.
“I believe that as Nigerians if they are called upon by the government, the major cause of this problem (banditry) is poverty and ignorance.”
Mr Yerima assured citizens that plans are already in the pipeline for palliative measures to cushion the effects of the petrol subsidy removal.
Mr Yerima, who introduced Sharia law in Zamfara in 1999, made this call in an interview with BBC Hausa on Saturday.
The 2009 marriage generated much criticisms among child rights activists at the time but Mr Yerima insists he did not contravene any Nigerian law.
