Rahma Hussein: Teen bride gets freedom 7-years after being convicted for killing husband

Rahma Hussein, a 22-year-old woman, has been pardoned seven years after she was convicted for killing her husband.

In 2014, Hussein, then a 16-year-old, was arrested and charged to a high court in Kano for stabbing her husband to death at Darmanawa area in Tarauni Local Government, less than a week after their wedding.

Delivering the judgement in 2018, Justice R. A. Sadik ordered that Hussein be “detained at the pleasure of the governor of the state” because she was forcefully married and committed the offence at the age of 16.

However, the Presidential Committee on Prison Reforms and Decongestion led by Justice Ishaq Bello, gave her respite on Friday along with 30 other inmates released from various custodial centres in the state.

In a statement issued to journalists on Saturday, spokesman for the Correctional Centres in Kano, Musbahu Kofar-Nassarawa, said her release was “based on the recommendation from the officials of the correctional centre who attested to her good behavior and industry.

He said the committee also advised the governor of Kano state, Abdullahi Ganduje, who holds the power of prerogative of mercy on her judgement, to consider the circumstances that led her to commit the offence and grant her pardon.

He said the governor obliged to the advice and granted her pardon.

In an attached audio to the statement, Hussein expressed her excitement at her release and thanked the committee, the governor and officials of the correctional centre for facilitating her freedom.

“I’m grateful to this committee. May Allah bless you. The officials of the correctional centres, who recommended me to be beneficiary of this gesture, may Allah reward you abundantly,” she said in tears.