Gezawa (Nigeria) (AFP) – A packed Nigerian court heard testimony on Monday<\/p>\n
that a 14-year-old girl admitted to killing her 35-year-old husband with
\nrat poison, and signed a police confession with a thumbprint because she
\ncannot write.<\/p>\n
Wasila Tasi’u, from a poor and deeply conservative Muslim family, has been
\ncharged with murdering her husband Umar Sani days after their marriage in
\nnorthern Kano state.<\/p>\n
Because she did not understand English, homicide investigator Abdullahi
\nAdamu translated her statement from the Hausa language dominant in the
\nregion and gave her the document to sign.<\/p>\n
She could not write her name, so “she had to use a thumbprint,” he told
\nthe court during his testimony on the last day of the prosecution\u2019s case.<\/p>\n
The state’s lawyers, who are seeking the death penalty, also called to the
\nstand Tasi’u’s “co-wife”, a term referring to the woman — identified as
\nRamatu — whom the deceased farmer had married previously in a region
\nwhere polygamy is widespread.<\/p>\n
Ramatu said she got along well with Tasi’u and that the two had prepared
\nthe food together on April 5, the day Sani died.<\/p>\n
She testified that because it was Tasi’u’s turn to share a bed with Sani,
\nTasi’u was also entitled to serve him his meal.<\/p>\n
“After putting the food in the dish I didn’t see anybody put anything in
\nit,” Ramatu said.<\/p>\n
She told the court she saw her husband sometime later being helped back to
\nthe house by a neighbour, unable to walk and foaming at the mouth.<\/p>\n
As she spoke the court was overflowing, with people peering in through the
\nopen windows and a crowd so large it spilled out of the gallery door.<\/p>\n
The case has sparked outrage among human rights activists who say Nigeria
\nshould be treating Tasi’u as a victim, noting the possibility that she was
\nraped by the man she married.<\/p>\n
But others in the region, including relatives of the defendant and the
\ndeceased, have rejected the notion that Tasi’u was forced into marriage.<\/p>\n
They have said that 14 is a common age to marry in the deeply impoverished
\nregion and that Tasi’u chose Sani from among many suitors.<\/p>\n
A motion by defence lawyers to have the case moved to juvenile court was
\nrejected, despite claims by human rights lawyers that she is too young to
\nstand trial for murder in a high court.<\/p>\n
Further complicating the case is the role of sharia (Islamic law) in
\nnorthern Nigeria, which allows children to marry according to some
\ninterpretations.<\/p>\n
While sharia is technically in force in Kano, law enforcement officials
\nhave no guidelines concerning how it should be balanced with the secular
\ncriminal codes, creating a complex legal hybrid system.<\/p>\n
According to Human Rights Watch, Nigeria is not known to have executed a
\njuvenile offender since 1997, when the country was ruled by military
\ndictator Sani Abacha.<\/p>\n
The trial has been adjourned until February 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gezawa (Nigeria) (AFP) – A packed Nigerian court heard testimony on Monday that a 14-year-old girl admitted to killing her 35-year-old husband with rat poison, and signed a police confession…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n