Friends
For some very unknown reason, forced marriage is till accepted in many African
countries including Uganda. I just get appalled when it starts to be defended
by men like George Okello that sees no problem into Acholi’s raping but force
marrying women from Luwero. That leaves many of us still on the intelligent
side, simply dumb founded. And when men like George Okello decide to cover the
Acholi atrocities in Luwero and West Nile, one leaves no option but to call on
the international community to see that the people of Luwero and West Nile get
justice by getting heard on what goons like Acholi’s did to them backed by
goons like George Okello.
When you stand up and defend a rapist I fail to find a name fitting you than
such.
EM
On the 49th Parallel
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni katika
machafuko"
From: ugandans-at-he...@googlegroups.com
[mailto:ugandans-at-he...@googlegroups.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2014 1:31 PM
To: Ugandans-at-heart
Subject: {UAH} Forced marriage!
A packed Nigerian court heard testimony on Monday 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.
Wasila Tasi'u, from a poor and deeply conservative Muslim family, has been
charged with murdering her husband Umar Sani days after their marriage in
northern Kano state.
Because she did not understand English, homicide investigator Abdullahi Adamu
translated her statement from the Hausa language dominant in the region and
gave her the document to sign.
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.
The state's lawyers, who are seeking the death penalty, also called to the
stand Tasi'u's "co-wife", a term referring to the woman -- identified as Ramatu
-- whom the deceased farmer had married previously in a region where polygamy
is widespread.
Ramatu said she got along well with Tasi'u and that the two had prepared the
food together on April 5, the day Sani died.
She testified that because it was Tasi'u's turn to share a bed with Sani,
Tasi'u was also entitled to serve him his meal.
"After putting the food in the dish I didn't see anybody put anything in it,"
Ramatu said.
She told the court she saw her husband sometime later being helped back to the
house by a neighbour, unable to walk and foaming at the mouth.
As she spoke the court was overflowing, with people peering in through the open
windows and a crowd so large it spilled out of the gallery door.
The case has sparked outrage among human rights activists who say Nigeria
should be treating Tasi'u as a victim, noting the possibility that she was
raped by the man she married.
But others in the region, including relatives of the defendant and the
deceased, have rejected the notion that Tasi'u was forced into marriage.
They have said that 14 is a common age to marry in the deeply impoverished
region and that Tasi'u chose Sani from among many suitors.
A motion by defence lawyers to have the case moved to juvenile court was
rejected, despite claims by human rights lawyers that she is too young to stand
trial for murder in a high court.
Further complicating the case is the role of sharia (Islamic law) in northern
Nigeria, 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, when the country was ruled by military dictator
Sani Abacha. The trial has been adjourned until February 16.
http://www.monitor.co.ug/…/…/2566400/-/13q7oknz/-/index.html
<http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/World/Child-bride-confessed-to-killing-husband--police/-/688340/2566400/-/13q7oknz/-/index.html>
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