A teenage girl who was forced to marry a 35-year-old man in Nigeria has killed her husband and three of his friends by lacing their meal with rat poison.
Wasila Umaru, 14, married Umaru Sani last month, but when he invited fourteen of his friends to celebrate the marriage with him at his village near Kano over the weekend, the girl took revenge for being forced to marry a man she did not love.
Sani and three of his friends died as a result of the poisoning, with ten more needing hospital treatment.
Spokesman of the Kano State Police Command, ASP Musa Magaji Majiya told CKN Nigeria:
“The suspect confessed to the act and claimed that because she does not love her husband, she resorted to taking this option. Corpses were taken to hospital for examination. Investigation is on top gear”
According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Nigeria has some of the highest rates of early marriage in the world, and although the federal minimum age for marriage is 18, this is not enforced in many states, especially in the Muslim north. 20% of girls in the country are currently married before the age of 15, and 40% by the age of 18.