A 22-year-old woman, Rahma Hussein, was on Friday granted pardon seven years after she was convicted for killing her husband.
Hussein was in 2014, at the age of 16, arrested and charged before a Kano High Court for stabbing her husband to death at Darmanawa area in Tarauni Local Government, less than a week after their wedding.
In 2018, while delivering his judgement, Justice R. A. Sadik, had ordered that Hussein be “detained at the pleasure of the governor of the state” as she was forced into the marriage and committed the offence at the age of 16.
But the Justice Ishaq Bello-led Presidential Committee on Prison Reforms and Decongestion gave the convict respite on Friday along with 30 other inmates released from various custodial centres in the state.
Spokesman for the Correctional Centres in Kano, Musbahu Kofar-Nassarawa, in a statement on Saturday, said Hussein’s release was “based on the recommendation from the officials of the correctional centre who attested to her good behaviour and industry.”
The centre’s spokesman added that the committee advised Kano State Governor 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 heeded the advice and granted her pardon.
In an attached audio to the statement, Hussein expressed her excitement at her release and thanked the committee, Governor Ganduje 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 an emotion-laden voice.