A 14-year-old Nigerian girl accused of murdering her 35-year-old husband by putting rat poison in his food could face the death penalty, Nigerian prosecutors have said.

The trial of Wasila Tasi'u, from a poor northern Nigeria family, has sparked a heated debate on the role of underage marriage in the conservative Muslim region, especially whether an adolescent girl can consent to be a bride.

Prosecutors at the High Court in Gezawa, outside Nigeria's second city of Kano, filed an amended complaint that charged Tasi'u with one count of murder over the killing of Umar Sani two weeks after their April wedding in the village of Unguwar Yansoro.

Lead prosecutor Lamido Abba Soron-Dinki said that if convicted, the charge is "punishable with death" and indicated the state would seek the maximum penalty.

Nigeria is not known to have executed a juvenile offender since 1997, when the country was ruled by military dictator Sani Abacha, according to Human Rights Watch.

Tasi'u entered the court wearing a cream-coloured hijab and was escorted by two policemen.

Her parents, who have condemned their daughter's alleged act, were in the public gallery - the first time the three were in the same room since Tasi'u's arrest in April, her legal representatives said.

The English-language charge sheet was translated into Hausa for the accused by the court clerk.

Tasi'u refused to answer when asked if she understood the charges.

The case was adjourned for 30 minutes so the charges could be better explained to the defendant, but when the alleged offences were read again Tasi'u stayed silent, turned her head to the wall and broke down in tears.

"The court records (that) she pleads not guilty," Judge Mohammed Yahaya said, apparently regarding her silence as equal to a denial of the charges and adjourned the case until November 26.

Activists, including in Nigeria's mainly Christian south, have called for Tasi'u's immediate release, saying she should be rehabilitated as a victim and noting the prospect that she was raped by the man she married.

But in the north, Islamic law operates alongside the secular criminal code, a hybrid system that has complicated the question of marital consent.

The affected families have denied that Tasi'u was forced into marriage, arguing that girls across the impoverished region marry at 14 and that Tasi'u and Sani followed the traditional system of courtship.

According to Nigeria's marriage act, anyone under 21 can marry provided they have parental consent and so evidence of an agreement between Tasi'u and her father Tasiu Mohammed could undermine claims of a forced union.

But defence lawyer Hussaina Aliyu has insisted the case is not a debate about the role of youth marriage in a Muslim society.

Instead, she has argued that under criminal law a 14-year-old cannot be charged with murder in a high court and has demanded that the case be moved to the juvenile system.

Nigeria defines the age of adulthood as 17 but the situation is less clear in the 12 northern states under Islamic law, where courts theoretically have the right to consider people under 17 as legally responsible.

Guidelines for how courts should blend Islamic and secular legal codes have not been well defined.

Read more, click http://www.wetinhappen.com.ng/death-penalty-14yr-old-bride-poisoned-35yr-old-husband/

Shey na dem want underage marriage, now dey hav gotten it......

Following Iran's footsteps.

at 14 they should have been suffocating her with books not marriage!

Very unfortunate.

Hmmmmm

Heard something similar like two years ago.

But the poison killed her husband friends too.

They should give 2yr old out in marraige too na. DEM NEVER SEE ANYTHING YET. Mtchew!

Shame on the prosecutors and judge. #blackmanArise

How religion, particularly Islam, overrides the Nigerian Constitution which is the supreme law of the land, baffles me. How the provision of the constitution that renders null n void, any law inconsistent with d provisions of d constitution to the extent of its inconsistency, is conveniently ignored, leaves me completely flummoxed.

The fact that the milk of human kindness as well as d principle of equity and good conscience is lost on a good number of ppl, particularly adherents to this religion in the North, is particularly worrisome.

As na only dem waka come, make dem kontinu.

Well, I'm not surprised about the fact that all these northern prosecutors still reason through their Anus

Cursed people.

And these people will sleep well at night after condemning a girl of 14 to death.

Bloody killers

The girl is a minor for crying out loud!!!

Ah ah! O gini bu ihe a sef

A country where pe*dophiles are protected by law and victims of pedophilia punished and yet some will point fingers at America.
A country where a child can be married off, ra*ped and then killed.

Shame!!!

Mondisweets:
at 14 they should have been suffocating her with books not marriage!

12yrs or 14yrs old and whatever age she is , it is their culture and murder is murder, she should stand a fair trial.

Chai! I don't know what's more painful, the fact that her life may be over even before she it begins or that her parents obviously abandoned her, so since April they didn't care to check up on their daughter, smh.

carefreewannabe:


Whose culture is it to bleep children?

And it wasn't murder but self-defense.

There she goes again.

I never supported the culture of betrothing kids to adults all in the name of religion.However,she killed somebody by using a lethal poison which I find very hard to believe that such dastardly act can be perpetrated by a 14 yr old girl.

The undisputed fact remains that she killed somebody and she's a murderer even if the court sets her free today that doesn't still change the fact that somebody died because of her actions.

Poisoning somebody is now a form of self-defense? I understand the angle you're coming from but from a logical point of view that argument won't hold water in an Islamic court room - The least she can even get is to rot in jail in a secular court room ran by you and your kind.

Truckpusher:
There she goes again.

I never supported the culture of betrothing kids to adults all in the name of religion.However,she killed somebody by using a lethal poison which I find very hard to believe that such dastardly act can be perpetrated by a 14 yr old girl.

The undisputed fact remains that she killed somebody and she's a murderer even if the court sets her free today that doesn't still change the fact that somebody died because of her actions.

Poisoning somebody is now a form of self-defense? I understand the angle you're coming from but from a logical point of view that argument won't hold water in an Islamic court room - The least she can even get is to rot in jail in a secular court room ran by you and your kind.

For me she is not a murderer and she acted in self-defense.
The pe*dophile deserved to die and I hope he will rot in hell.

carefreewannabe:




For me she is not a murderer and she acted in self-defense.
The pe*dophile deserved to die and I hope he will rot in hell.

Face your job and stop multitasking yourself thereby replying me with the most eediotic post of the day.


Oya face your work.

Truckpusher:
Face your job and stop multitasking yourself thereby replying me with the most eediotic post of the day.


Oya face your work.

Saying that bleeping children against their will is someone's culture that must be tolerated was the peak of e*diocy so you better be quiet.

This entire situation is so unfortunate.

carefreewannabe:


Saying that bleeping children against their will is someone's culture that must be tolerated was the peak of e*diocy so you better be quiet.

Obviously you're so overwhelmed this morning by your job that you couldn't think properly to figure out that ,that particular statement was a figurative language (sarcasm) which was meant to mock those that are encouraging child marriage in the 21st century.

But I still maintain that murder is murder - One beautiful thing is that no amount of outcry from you closet feminists would change the minds of these Islamic rag heads from killing one of your own for refusing to dig

Truckpusher:
12yrs or 14yrs old and whatever age she is , it is their culture and murder is murder, she should stand a fair trial.

please im not going there with you of all people. i would never even wish for my worst enemy's daughter to be used as a scape goat out of porvety, just for her to be psychologically and physically abused at such a young age, because some grown assss people want things handed over to them, instead of working for it!

Truckpusher:
Obviously you're so overwhelmed this morning by your job that you couldn't think properly to figure out that ,that particular statement was a figurative language (sarcasm) which was meant to mock those that are encouraging child marriage in the 21st century.

But I still maintain that murder is murder - One beautiful thing is that no amount of outcry from you closet feminists would change the minds of these Islamic rag heads from killing one of your own for refusing to dig

how has this got anything to do with feminism for phuck's sake, if someone keeps pushing u against the wall so much, u swear u will never ever retaliate out of anger due to provocations! U do know rapeeee and child abise can psychologically damage a person! Cause mental illnesses and personality disorders! I bet u never screamed murder when Pistorius was given culpable homicide instead, but this time around because its someone with a vagi.na then we definitely have to scream murder.

Truckpusher:
Face your job and stop multitasking yourself thereby replying me with the most eediotic post of the day.


Oya face your work.

truckpusher you of all people should know not to joke around about stuff like this.

Mondisweets:

please im not going there with you of all people. i would never even wish for my worst enemy's daughter to be used as a scape goat out of porvety, just for her to be psychologically and physically abused at such a young age, because some grown assss people want things handed over to them, instead of working for it!

Was it not her parents that married her off according to their religious rites and tradition?

Why should I cry more than the bereaved? Mondi.

How did a 14yr old child know that a particular dosage of rat poison can be lethal?

She's a killer and justice has no face and eyes - Minor or no minor she has committed homicide and should face the consequences according to the interpretation of the sharia law they want in the North.

It would have been different if she had killed him with a knife or a club then the issue of domestic violence can be established as a motive while hanging it on self-defense.

But the supposedly minor, Nairaland's closet feminists toddler had all the time in the world to know about poison and the effect on humans.

Oya sharia should be applied sharp sharp to beat every other rebelling girl back into line

We need them to behave.

Mondisweets:
truckpusher you of all people should know not to joke around about stuff like this.

What isn't a joke in this life?

One insignificant girl killed one insignificant pedophile and y'all want me to put on a sack cloth and mourn?

You must be far way outta ya mind.

I ain't mourning, I'm the mood for a fight ,just waiting for somebody to feed me.


In Shrek's voice

*Please feed me*

Mondisweets:
how has this got anything to do with feminism for phuck's sake, if someone keeps pushing u against the wall so much, u swear u will never ever retaliate out of anger due to provocations! U do know rapeeee and child abise can psychologically damage a person! Cause mental illnesses and personality disorders! I bet u never screamed murder when Pistorius was given culpable homicide instead, but this time around because its someone with a vagi.na then we definitely have to scream murder.

I brought in feminism when I saw too many closet feminist crawling around the whole damn place trying to spew trash - One actually said poisoning someone is self-defense.

Buhahahaha

How it is that an Islamic law overrides the constitution of the sovereign nation under which it is a part of, totally bewilders me.

That girl is a minor - guilty of murder, but a minor nonetheless.