NIGERIA: Child bride murder charges dropped

[20 May 2015] - Nigerian prosecutors have withdrawn murder charges against a 15-year-old girl accused of using rat poison to kill her husband, aged 35.

The Kano state attorney general told the BBC that the case would be dropped because the accused is a minor and the victim's family had forgiven her.

When the case was reported in 2014, it threw a spotlight on the issue of child brides and forced marriages in Nigeria.

These are especially common in the mainly Muslim north.

Charges against the girl will be formally dropped once the court receives either a written or oral presentation from the office of Kano's attorney general.

The girl admitted to killing her husband by concealing rat poison in his food, the police in Kano said at the time.

Three other people also died and 10 were taken to hospital apparently after eating the same food.

The girl's father had forced her to marry the 35-year-old man, police said.

The BBC's Will Ross in Nigeria says Islamic police are trying to stop parents from forcing children into marriages.

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