A packed Kano State High Court, yesterday, heard testimony that a 14-year-old girl admitted to killing her 35-year-old husband with rat poison, and signed a police confession with a thumbprint because she cannot write.
The girl, from a poor and conservative Muslim
family, has been charged with murdering her husband, Umar Sani, days after
their marriage in Kano State.
Because she does not understand English,
homicide investigator Abdullahi Adamu translated her statement from the Hausa
language.
She could not write her name, so “she had to
use a thumbprint,” he told the court, during his testimony on the last day of
the prosecution’s case.
A motion by defence lawyers to have the case
moved to juvenile court was rejected, despite claims by human rights lawyers
that she was too young to stand trial for murder in a high court.
Further complicating the case is the role of
Sharia, which allows children to marry according to some interpretations.
While sharia is technically in force in Kano,
law enforcement officials have no guidelines concerning how it should be
balanced with the secular criminal codes, creating a complex legal hybrid
system.
According to Human Rights Watch, Nigeria is
not known to have executed a juvenile offender since 1997.
The trial has been adjourned until February
16, 2015.
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