14-Year-Old Girl Set To Undergo Murder Trial Over Forced Marriage

                    Wasila Tasi’u, 14, is expected to begin trial for murder in northern Nigeria today, for allegedly poisoning a 35-year-old man, Umaru Sani, to whom she was forcibly wed.

Wasila Umaru The girl confessed to the poisoning of Sani and three others with a rat poison-laced dish that she served during the wedding party in Unguwar Yansoro village outside Kano, just a week after the union took place.         
                                                                                                                                         

Despite the girl's confession, Kano State police spokesman Musa Magaji Majia told AFP, “She did it because she was forced by her parents to marry a man she did not love.”
Tasi'u's confession is also coming under scruntiny from her legal team. Her attorney, Hussaina Aliyu, who works for the International Federation of Women Lawyers, vehemently denies that the young woman's confession is legally admissible, being that the girl was interrogated without parental or legal supervision.
“She is still a child,” her lawyer pleaded. In light of this, the defense urges officials to transfer the case to a juvenile court, a request previously denied by Kano authorities.                                                                       
Kano State has operated under sharia Islamic law since June 2000, around the time the defendant was born.
The practice of underage marriage is a frequent point of contention in sharia states, as the complicated hybridity of federal law and Islamic law often make it difficult to enforce and implement legislation. In the past several months, child marriage has been a pressing topic, ignited by legislative pressure to nationally greenlight the practice, which would effectively make girls legal adults once they are married off.
“Do justice to her. Treat the case as it is. Treat her as a child,” Aliyu begged officials.