Kano Child Bride Charged With Murder For Killing Husband Regains Freedom

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A Nigerian court on Tuesday formally struck out the case against 15-year-old Wasila Tasi’u who was accused of killing her 35-year-old husband with rat poison.

The State had last month dropped the murder charges against her. She was charged with culpable homicide and faced a possible death sentence if convicted of deliberately lacing a meal she cooked for her husband Umar Sani with rat poison.

Sani and four others died within hours in April last year.

Wasila’s defence lawyer Hussaina Aliyu on March 16 called for the case to be dismissed on the grounds that the prosecution had failed to establish her intent to kill Sani and exactly how he died. The prosecution applied for murder charges to be withdrawn on May 20. The case was adjourned pending the agreement to her release from the attorney general of the northern state of Kano.

Judge Mohammed Yahaya, sitting at the High Court in Gezawa, near the state capital, Kano city, confirmed receipt of notification that the state was willing to drop the case.

“I have no alternative than to pronounce according to law that the application of ‘nolle prosequi’ (unwilling to pursue) is hereby granted,” he told the court.

“In consequence, therefore, you, Wasila Tasi’u, are hereby discharged.”