A 14-year-old teenager, Wasila Tasi’u has been accused of poisoning her 35-year-old man whom she was forced to marry in northern Nigeria in a case that has divided opinions along religious and moral lines.
Wasila Tasi’u
Tasi’u, who has also been charged with the murder of three others who allegedly ate the food laced with rat poison that she prepared and served in April this year, is said to have carried out a plan to kill her husband a week after her marriage to Umaru Sani.
According to the Nigerian Police, Tasi’u confessed to poisoning Sani and his guests at the wedding party in the village of Unguwar Yansoro Village, several kilometres away from Kano.
“She did it because she was forced by her parents to marry a man she did not love,” Kano state police spokesman, Musa Magaji Majia said.
Her lawyer, Hussaina Aliyu rejects claims that her client made a legally valid confession. She said Tasi’u was questioned by police without a parent or lawyer present and that comments she may have made are inadmissable in court.
Aliyu, who works with the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), has sought to have the case transferred to a juvenile court, which was outrightly rejected by justice officials in Kano.
“All we are saying is do justice to her. Treat the case as it is. Treat her as a child,” Aliyu said.
With Nigeria’s federal and secular laws also applying, the issue creates a confusing hybrid legal system where sharia police try to work with government authorities to enforce criminal justice.
