Nigerian prosecutors on May 20 withdrew murder charges against 15-year-old Wasila Tasi’u who was accused of using rat poison to kill the 35-year-old man she had married.This process generated many reactions in the Nigerian society. Since the arrest of the “killer bride” there have been numerous calls for the girl’s release. Activists insisted that Wasila had become victim of child marriage.
On Wednesday the case took a surprising development, according to Vanguard.
Prosecutor Lamido Abba Soron-Dinki asked the High Court to “terminate the case of culpable homicide against Wasila Tasi’u”.
“With a heavy heart, I apply that the accused be discharged.”
AFP exclusively obtained from its sources in Kano that Nigeria had faced pressure to drop the case which has angered rights activists.
In case you missed, find the story in full below.
March 17, 2015
A defence lawyer on March 16, Monday, requested the court to dismiss the murder charges against 14-year-old Wasila Tasi’u, called the “killer bride”, who allegedly poisoned her husband in Gaya LGA, Kano state, last year.
It should be recalled that apart from the 35-year-old spouse, three other people died as a result of taking a poisonous substance.
According to PM News, in a recent development lawyer Hussaina Aliyu said to the High Court in Gezawa:
“We urge your lordship to discharge and acquit the accused.”
Aliyu insisted that the prosecution had failed to prove her guilt by establishing a connection between the cause of Umaru Sani’s death and Wasila’s intent to kill him.
Witness Hamziyya, the sister of the girl’s co-wife, said that the suspect had given her money to buy rat poison. The defence stressed, however that the state had breached the law by calling a seven-year-old witness.
The prosecution believes that the charge has been proved, and requests the death penalty for Wasila, whose case has generated serious controversies over child marriages.
Both parents of the deceased and the suspect denied that the 14-year-old had been forced into marriage. They noted that it was a standard marrying age in northern Nigeria.
There had been attempts by the defence to direct the case to the juvenile court, but the motion was rejected.
November 11, 2014
The father of a 14-year-old child bride Wasila Tasi’u, who has been accused of murdering her husband, appealed to a Nigerian court to spare his daughter.
“We are appealing to the judge to consider Wasila’s plea,” her father, Isyaku Tasi’u, told Associated Press on Thursday.
On Wednesday witnesses told the High Court in Gezawa, a town 60 miles outside of Kano, that Wasila Tasi’u killed her husband and three others two weeks after their wedding in April.
The prosecution led by a senior state council from the Kano State Ministry of Justice, Lamido Soron-Dinki, wants the death penalty for the accused.
This case calls into question the legality of trying a 14-year-old for murder under criminal law and the rights of child brides, who are common in the poverty-stricken, predominantly Muslim northern region.
Zubeida Nagee, a women’s rights activist in Kano, told Associated Press:
“She was married to a man that she didn’t love. She protested but her parents forced her to marry him.”
Nagee and other activists have written a letter of protest to the Kano state deputy governor. Nagee stated that Wasila was a victim of systematic abuse endured by millions of girls in the region. Activists say the blend of traditional customs, Islamic law and Nigeria’s constitutional law poses a challenge when advocating for the rights of young girls in Nigeria.
If Wasila is taken to the gallows, she will be the first minor to be executed in the country since 1997.
August 4, 2014
Wasila set to go on trial for murder.
It had been previously reported that the girl had confessed to committing the crime, saying her reason was that she was forced to marry a man against her own wishes and whom she did not love.
On April 14, Monday, she was charged before a Rijiyar Zaki Magistrates Court in Kano for alleged culpable homicide.
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Her lawyer Hussaina Aliyu, however, rejected claims that her client made a legally valid confession.
She said Tasi’u was questioned by police without a parent or lawyer present and so any comments she may have made are inadmissable in court.
“All we are saying is do justice to her. Treat the case as it is. Treat her as a child,” Aliyu said.
She insisted that the primary issue was that criminal charges filed against a minor should be handled by a juvenile court.
July 7, 2014
Wasila Tasi’u has been charged by the Kano state government with culpable homicide punishable by death.
The young girl who hails from Yansoro village, Gaya local government council, had allegedly poisoned her husband-to-be and his relatives with rat poison to avoid the marriage.
This recent development follows the transfer of the case from juvenile court to a Kano State High Court over what judicial sources attributed to “lack of jurisdiction by the lower court”.
Vanguard obtained the charge sheet title:
“Application to prefer a charge under Section 185(B) of the Criminal Procedure code Cap.105 Laws of Kano State 1991, signed on behalf of the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice by a Senior State Counsel in the ministry, Lamido A Soron Dinki, lined seven prosecution witnesses.”
The sheet states:
“By the power conferred upon the Attorney General of Kano State of Nigeria under Section 211(1) (a) (b) and (c) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and Section 7 of the Criminal Procedure Code Law Cap. 37 Laws of Kano State which delegate powers, I do hereby seek, under Criminal Procedure Code, to charge for trial of Wasila Tasi’u.”
“That you, Wasila Tasi’u, 14 years, of Yansoro village , Gaya Local Government Council, on or about the 5th day of April, 2014, at about 14:30 hours, at Yansoro village, Gaya within the Kano Judicial Division, did commit culpable homicide punishable with death in that you caused the death of four persons.”
June 2, 2014
The young bride pleaded with the judge of the juvenile court to release her over being homesick.
Speaking exclusively with a Vanguard correspondent before the arraignment, the 14-year-old lamented that despite substantial support from her family and even from strangers, she missed her mother:
“I miss my mum who has not been allowed to visit me in a strange land… My dad and aunt visited me a few days ago and conveyed my mother’s message but the vacuum created by her absence can not be filled by anyone.”
Meanwhile, her late husband’s father Sani Garba told the journalist he still was unable to overcome the grief and said:
“Do you know that I lost three children to her action and you are asking whether I have forgiven her? The act was too painful to be forgiven and I don’t think I can forgive her.”
Telling how the relationship between his son and Wasila started, he said the two had courted for a year before the marriage and were no strangers to each other.
The suspect’s father, Tasi’u Muhammad, said they would never abandon their “little girl”, attributing Wasila’s act to destiny. He also said that his family had visited their in-laws to beg for forgiveness.
April 13, 2014
Fourteen-year-old Wasila Umaru feels sorry about what she did.
Speaking in tears with Sunday Vanguard, the girl confessed:
“Mine was a classical example of youthful exuberance; it dawned on me shortly after that it was a joke taken too far to resolve a forced marriage question.”
According to Wasila, her father forced her into the relationship she was not ready for.
Asked about her late husband, Umar Sani, the girl said:
“My blood went cold when I realized I had committed mass murder.”
With all the evidence available, the police have to prosecute the alleged culpable homicide, but they face a serious dilemma because of the suspect’s age.
Meanwhile lamenting over her act, Wasila said:
“Destiny appears to have played a wicked one on me at this early stage of my life and I would rededicate the rest of my life to sincerely seek Allah’s forgiveness.”
Initial report: April 15, 2014
The suspect confessed to committing the crime and said that she could not marry a man she did not love.
She said she had bought the rat poison, known in local parlance as Shinkafa Bera, at a village market at the cost of eight naira.
The husband died after eating the meal along with his friends, Nasiru Mohammed and Alhassan Alhassan of Yansoro Kademi who died on the spot, while the other female victim, Indo Ibrahim died at the hospital while receiving treatment.
Ten other victims who also ate the poisonous meal survived after they had been successfully treated at the hospital.
The Kano state police spokesman, Musa Magaji Majiya, confirmed the incident. The corpses were taken to the hospital for examination and the investigation was started, he added.
