Khamis Haruna, a 29-year-old groom, has been hospitalised after allegedly being poisoned by his 14-year-old bride two days after their wedding.
Haruna, who said he and the teenager had been in a relationship for two years, expressed shock over the incident he said happened on Sunday, December 22, 2024, in Kiyawa Local Government Area.
Speaking to The Nation, Haruna recounted how he was poisoned.
According to Haruna, he and his two friends, Muhammad Alfah and Isyaku Adamu, were working in his tailoring shop at about 10 p.m., when the bride’s friends brought them jollof spaghetti. They took a few spoonfuls before detecting a substance in the meal.
He said, “We were married on Friday and the ceremony continued till Sunday when the bride came into my house as the last phase of the ceremony,” he said.
“At about 10 pm on that day, my two friends urged me to go into her room, but I said no, because some of the women that escorted her to the house had not left.
“So we were in my tailoring shop when some of the bride’s friends came and told us that we should come in to eat, but I told them we were not yet ready.
“Later, they came back with the food, which was jollof spaghetti, and left.”
“Noticing that, we became suspicious and stopped eating. We all became uncomfortable and scared. minutes later, Alfah started complaining about his stomach pain. He stood up to leave but he could not control himself, so we took him to a friend’s house which was closer.
“By the time we got inside, all of us had started feeling the same. We were given milk but we felt no relief as the situation worsened. We were then rushed to Jahun Hospital where Alfah died while Isyaku and I were rescued,” Haruna said.
The groom alleged that his bride had been influenced by an ex-lover who provided her with the poison.
“We were married for love. I thought she loved me wholeheartedly. I’m really surprised. She never showed any sign of ill feelings before this,” Haruna lamented.
Haruna admitted that he began a relationship with the girl two years ago, when she was just 12 years old.
He further said, “I never thought this could happen. I believed she loved me.”
Child marriage is prohibited under Nigeria’s Child Rights Act, 2003, but only 24 out of 36 states of the country have adopted it as a state law.
In Jigawa State, where the incident happened, lawmakers removed provisions from the act that prohibit child marriage, arguing that maturity cannot always be determined by age. Child marriage has been linked to several societal challenges, including health risks, interrupted education, and psychological trauma for underage brides.
Nigeria adopted the Child Rights Act in 2003 to domesticate the International Convention on the Rights of a Child.
Jigawa passed the Child Rights Act but later repealed it in 2012.
