Kano child bride ‘admits’ murdering her 35-year-old husband using rat poison

A Nigerian child bride has ‘admitted’ murdering her 35-year-old husband with rat poison by signing a confession she could not read – with her thumbprint.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for 14-year-old Wasila Tasi’u, whose farmer husband Umar Sani was found dead just days after marrying her in April.

If she is found guilty, the teenager – who is from a poor and deeply conservative Muslim family and cannot write – could become the first child in Nigeria to be executed in 18 years.

Human rights campaigners have expressed outrage over her treatment, saying she should be seen as a victim of abuse.

Gezawa High Court overflowed yesterday as prosecutors closed their case in the murder trial, with people peering in through the open windows and a crowd so large it spilled out of the gallery door.

Homicide investigator Abdullahi Adamu revealed he translated Wasila’s statement from her native language, Hausa, into English, which she did not speak.

Despite being unable to read the document she then signed it, he told the court.

She could not write her name so ‘she had to use a thumbprint,’ he added.

The court heard the murder victim had married Ramatu previously in the village of Unguwar Yansoro, which sits in a region where polygamy is widespread.

Ramatu said she got along well with the 14-year-old and the two had prepared food together on April 5, the day Sani died.

Because it was Wasila’s turn to share a bed with her new husband, she was also entitled to serve him his meal.

‘After putting the food in the dish I didn’t see anybody put anything in it,’ Ramatu said – but later she saw her husband foaming at the mouth and unable to walk.

Previously a seven-year-old girl who Wasila allegedly sent to buy rat poison was called to give evidence.

Identified only as Hamziyya, the young girl – believed to be Ramatu’s sister – was living in the same house as the 14-year-old and her new husband at the time of his death.

‘She said rats were disturbing her in her room,’ Hamziyya told the court.

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 raped by the man she married.

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.