Murder Charges Against Kano Child-bride Dropped

Prosecutors on Wednesday withdrew murder charges against 15-year-old girl Wasila Tasi’u accused of using rat poison to kill her 35-year-old husband, Umar Sani and 4 others. The murder charge dates back to April 5, 2014, when Sani hosted a small wedding celebration at his home in the small Kano village of Unguwar Yansoro.

Prosecutor Lamido Abba Soron-Dinki asked the High Court in Gezawa, Kano state, to “terminate the case of culpable homicide against Wasila Tasi’u”, who was 14 when she married Umar Sani.

“With a heavy heart, I apply that the accused be discharged,” he added.

Judge Mohammed Yahaya told the court he required either a written or oral presentation from the office of Kano’s attorney general before formally dropping the charges and agreeing to Tasi’u’s release.

He ordered that presentation to be made on June 9.

The defendant, who has grown emotional during past hearings, stood silently in court on Wednesday.

As much of the discussion occurred between the judge and lawyers in English with no translator, it was not clear if she understood the events as they were unfolding.

Legal sources in Kano told AFP that Nigeria had faced pressure to drop the case which has angered rights activists.

Soron-Dinki told AFP that the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, had offered to “shelter” Tasi’u following her release.

It was not clear if the emir had any role in the prosecution decision to apply to drop the charges.

Locals in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north, Tasi’u’s home region, had rejected claims that she was a victim forced to marry a man more than twice her age, noting that 14 was a standard marrying age in the deeply conservative area.

Sani’s family and even Tasi’u’s parents said she chose her husband from a range of suitors and told close friends that she wanted to marry.

But rights activists insisted that Tasi’u was a minor in need of rehabilitation and could not be charged as an adult with murder.

Source: AFP