Child Bride Charged For Killing Her Husband In Kano Freed

A Kano High Court sitting in Gezawa on Tuesday  set free Wasila Tasiu, 14, accused of killing her husband and three others in April last year.

In a landmark judgment, Justice Mohammed Yahaya ruled that the court had no option than to comply with the application that originated from the Office of the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice that sought to terminate the case.

“I have no alternative than to pronounce according to the law that the application for nolle proseque is hereby granted,” the presiding judge said.

Consequently, Justice Yahaya declared that Wasila was discharged. The verdict threw the courtroom into wild jubilation, as hordes of human rights activists were present.

Earlier, the prosecution’s lawyer, Lamido Abba Soron Dinki, tendered an application dated May 20th that was signed by the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, urging the court to discontinue with the high profile murder case which has attracted global attention.

Dinki said: “In the nolle proseque is a delegation of power by the Commissioner for Justice to me and I hereby submit the notification and the instrument to the court.”

The Kano State Government had asked that the case be dismissed because she was a minor who had been forcibly married. The girl is to be freed from detention following the ruling. 

When the case was reported in 2014, it threw a spotlight on the issue of child brides and forced marriages in Nigeria. 

The girl admitted to killing her 35-year-old husband, she was forced to my by her father, by concealing rat poison in his food, the police in Kano said at the time.

Culled from ThisDay