Murder charge against Kano child bride ‘dropped’

Prosecutors have withdrawn murder charges against Wasila Tasi’u, the 15-year-old girl who used rat poison to kill her 35-year-old husband, Umar Sani, in April 2014.

Audu Bako, Kano state attorney-general, told the BBC that the case would be dropped “because the accused is a minor and the victim’s family had forgiven her”.

The charges would be formally dropped once the court receives either a written or oral presentation from Bako’s office.

Sani was found dead just days after marrying Wasila against her will.

Three other people also died and 10 were taken to hospital, apparently after eating the same food.

Wasila’s father had forced his then 14-year-old daughter to marry the farmer.

The teenager is from an impoverished and deeply conservative Muslim family.

Last year when the trial came up at Gezawa high court, Ramatu, Sani’s second wife, narrated how her “co-wife” prepared their husband dinner before she was due to go to bed with him.

“After putting the food in the dish, I didn’t see anybody put anything in it,” Ramatu said, adding that she saw her husband later on “foaming at the mouth and unable to walk”.

Hamziyya, a seven-year-old girl believed to be the teenager’s sister and living in the same home, was allegedly sent to buy rat poison by Wasila, which was confirmed by shopkeeper Abuwa Yusuf.

Hussaina Ibrahim from the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), who represented Wasila  in court, said the trial violated the teenager’s rights.

“We are against the trial. The whole process violates her fundamental rights,” she told The Guardian. “The UN Convention on the rights of the child says she should be in education. She should be in school.”