Islamic scholar tackles police chief who wants teenage wife punished for killing husband

Rumasa’u Muhammed, of Wuro Yanka Village in Shelleng local government area of Adamawa, wanted divorce, and when she couldn’t get it, ended the union with a long knife.

But many didn’t know why until police moved in to investigate a death—by stabbing.

Rumasau is 19.

She got married—off— in August to Muhammadu Adamu, 35.

Her parents made her marry the man

”Investigation so far reveals, that the suspect was forcefully married to the deceased by her parents against her will on Aug. 6,” Adamawa’s police spokesperson Sulaiman Nguroje said.

He said the Commissioner of Police, Aliyu Alhaji, has given a directive for a discreet investigation into the matter.

”The Commissioner has equally advised members of the public to stop forcing their wards into early and forceful marriages.

”In the same vein, the Commissioner, has directed for immediate prosecution of the suspect so as to serve as deterrence to others,” he said.

But Ustaz Abdullah Hamman, an Islamic Scholar in Yola, said forceful marriage has no place in Islam.

”According to Islam, parents have rights to choose for their children a good family to marry from but at same time, Islam does not encourage forced marriages,” Hamman told NAN.

He stressed the need for the parents to desist from forcing their children into marriage saying, such practice was causing a lot of harm in the society.

“The girl demanded that her late husband divorce her peacefully since she was not interested in the marriage. He refused,’ a family source lso confirmed.

”Angered by this after several requests, she picked up a knife and stabbed him in the stomach.

“He was rushed to the hospital where he was confirmed dead.”