Girl-Bride Who Killed Husband & Three Others Goes Dumb In Court

Most of you will remember the 14-year
old girl-bride who poisoned her husband’s meal in April for forcefully marrying
her and not allowing her continue her studies. Unfortunately, some of his
friends who came visiting the day she decided to poison his meal so that she
could be ‘free’ ate out of the food and three of them died. Wasila was charged
to court, but some human rights body have stood for her saying she was young
and ignorant.

Wasila was arraigned in court
yesterday in kano but after the court registrar read the charge to her repeatedly, she formed
dumb refusing to say a word; Here’s how Vanguard reports it.

There was a mild drama at Gezawa
High Court, Kano, yesterday as a girl-bride, Wasila Tasi, suspected to have
killed her husband and three others in April, failed to utter a word in court
during her trial.

The high profile culpable homicide
case that attracted the attention of the human rights community was nearly
stalled by refusal of the 14-year-old suspect to speak.

Consequently, the presiding judge,
Justice Muhammad Yahaya was compelled to enter a plea of ‘not guilty’ on her
behalf shortly after the charged sheet was read and explained to her in the
local dialect.

Wasila, looking perturbed at the
dock, was repeatedly asked whether she understood the content of what was read
before her, but each time she failed to utter a word as the court registrar ran
through the four-count charge of culpable homicide punishable by death under
Section 221 A of the Penal Code.

The decision of the court to enter
a plea of not guilty on her behalf revived the case as the prosecution counsel,
Lamido Abba Soron Dinki, offered to line up five witnesses to prove the merit
of the case.

The presiding judge, therefore,
adjourned the matter to November 26 and 27 to continue hearing and also ordered
that the suspect be returned to remand home.