Kano files new murder charges against 14-year-old bride

Kano State yesterday substituted a one-count charge with a four-count charge against a child bride who is facing murder trial. The 14-year-old Wosilat Tasiu is standing trial before a Kano High Court, Gezawa Division, for allegedly killing her 35-year-old husband, Umar Sani, and three others. The Ministry of Justice represented by senior state counsel, Lamido Soron Dinki, sought the relief of the court to substitute the initial charge with the new one.

Dinki told the court that the accused was before the court on a one-count charge of culpable homicide. But according to him, because those allegedly murdered were four, there is need to amend the charge. The counsel submitted that the application for the substitution of the charge sheet was pursuant to Section 185(b) of the Criminal Procedure Code. Tasiu’s counsel, Husaina Ibrahim, told the court that though she was not objecting to the substitution of the charge against her client, she was against the arraignment of the accused.
The presiding judge, Justice Mohammed Yahaya, noted that there was no motion before the court, adding that whenever the motion was brought on notice, the court would attend to it. The court granted the relief sought by the state counsel, ordering that the new charge be read out to the accused. The charge sheet states that on April 5, at Yan Tsoro village in Gaya Local Government Area in Kano State, Tasiu poisoned a meal with a conceived intent to kill her husband. It added that Sani, Hassan Alhassan (25), Nasiru Mohammed (13) and Indo Ibrahim (12) all partook in the poisoned meal. They all lost their lives.