Court Erupts In Jubilation As Kano Child Bride, Wasila, Is Freed Of Murder Charge

Justice Mohammed Yahaya in his judgment, ruled that the court was terminating the case based on the application to end the prosecution of the case originating from the Office of the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice.“I have no alternative than to pronounce according to the law that the application for nolle proseque is hereby granted,” the presiding judge said.

Consequently, Justice Yahaya declared that Wasila was discharged.The verdict threw the courtroom into jubilation.The prosecution’s lawyer, Lamido Abba Soron Dinki, tendered an application dated May 20th that was signed by the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, which urged the court to discontinue with the high profile murder case.

Dinki said: “In the nolle proseque is a delegation of power by the Commissioner for Justice to me and I hereby submit the notification and the instrument to the court.”

The Kano State Government had asked that the case be dismissed because she was a minor who had been forcibly married.

She is to be freed from detention following the ruling,

Wasila’s case has brought attention to the issue of child brides and forced marriages in Nigeria, especially in the Muslim North of the country where even Governors and high ranking officials indulge in the act.

The girl admitted to killing her husband by applying rat poison to his food, the police in Kano stated at the time. The girl’s father had forced her to marry the 35-year-old man, they said.