Child Bride Confesses To Poisoning Husband! But, Sadly It Seems No Help Is Coming Her Way

    A packed Kano State High Court, yesterday, heard testimony
    that a 14-year-old girl admitted to killing her 35-year-old husband with rat
    poison, and signed a police confession with a thumbprint because she cannot
    write.
    The girl, from a poor and conservative Muslim family, has
    been charged with murdering her husband, Umar Sani, days after their marriage
    in Kano State.

    Because she does not understand English, homicide
    investigator Abdullahi Adamu translated her statement from the Hausa language.
    She could not write her name, so “she had to use a
    thumbprint,” he told the court, during his testimony on the last day of the
    prosecution’s case.
      
    Co-wife’s story
    The state’s lawyers, who are seeking the death penalty, also
    called to the stand Tasi’u’s co-wife, identified as Ramatu.
    Ramatu said she got along well with Tasi’u and that the two
    had prepared the food together on April 5, the day Sani died.
    She testified that because it was Tasi’u’s turn to share bed
    with Sani, Tasi’u was also entitled to serve his meal.
    “After putting the food in the dish, I did not see anybody
    put anything in it,” Ramatu said.
    She said later her husband was helped back to the house by a
    neighbour, unable to walk and foaming at the mouth.
    The court overflowed, with crowd spilling out of the gallery
    door and people peering in through the open windows.
    The case has sparked outrage among human rights activists,
    who say Nigeria should be treating Tasi’u as a victim, noting the possibility
    that she was ra*ed by the man she married.
    Sharia
    However, others in the region, including relatives of the
    defendant and the deceased, have rejected the notion that Tasi’u was forced
    into marriage.
    They have said that 14 is a common age to marry and that
    Tasi’u chose Sani from among many suitors.
    A motion by defence lawyers to have the case moved to
    juvenile court was rejected, despite claims by human rights lawyers that she
    was too young to stand trial for murder in a high court.
    Further complicating the case is the role of Sharia, which
    allows children to marry according to some interpretations.
    While sharia is technically in force in Kano, law enforcement
    officials have no guidelines concerning how it should be balanced with the
    secular criminal codes, creating a complex legal hybrid system.
    According to Human Rights Watch, Nigeria is not known to
    have executed a juvenile offender since 1997.
    The trial has been adjourned until February 16, 2015.

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