The father of 14 year old child bride Wasila Tasi’u accused of murdering her husband and three others said on Thursday appealed to a Nigerian court to spare his daughter. Wasila is among the thousands of child brides in the region, who was married to 35 year old Umar Sani, and now on trial after he died from eating food mixed with rat poison in April. Three other people also reportedly died after eating the food, and the prosecution wants a death sentence for the young girl.
“We are appealing to the judge to consider Wasila’s plea,” her father, Isyaku Tasi’u, told The Associated Press on Thursday.
On Wednesday witnesses told the High Court in Gezawa, a town 60 miles outside of Kano, that Wasila Tasi’u killed her husband and three others two weeks after their wedding in April.
The prosecution led by a senior state council from the Kano State Ministry of Justice, Lamido Soron-Dinki, wants a death penalty for the accused. This case calls into question the legality of trying a 14-year-old for murder under criminal law and the rights of child brides, who are common in the poverty-stricken, predominantly Muslim northern region.
Zubeida Nagee, a women’s rights activist in Kano, told Associated Press “She was married to a man that she didn’t love. She protested but her parents forced her to marry him”. Nagee and other activists have written a letter of protest to the Kano state deputy governor.
Nagee stated that Wasila was a victim of systematic abuse endured by millions of girls in the region. Activists say the blend of traditional customs, Islamic law and Nigeria’s constitutional law poses a challenge when advocating for the rights of young girls in Nigeria.
Justice Mohammed Yahaya rejected the request for the case to be transferred to a juvenile court. The judge adjourned the court until December 22. Tasi’u is in state juvenile custody.
If Wasila is taken to the gallows, she will be the first minor offender in the country to be executed since 1997.
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