This Day, Lagos, 6 May 2002

Sharia: Woman Gets 100 Strokes Over Pregnancy

A 19-year-old woman from Zaki local government area of Bauchi State, Adama Yunusa, who dragged her fiancé, Isa Katagum, before a sharia court over unwanted pregnancy, would receive 100 strokes for indulging in immoral act.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that a Bauchi Sharia court of appeal, sitting in Bauchi, passed the judgment on Yunusa because she reported herself to the authority for committing fornication.

She went to court with the case. According to the reports, when she was already pregnant for four months, and her failure to produce four eyewitnesses, who could confirm that they had seen Katagum having sex with her turned her into the accused.

The three judges who decided Yunusa's fate, Khadis Abdullahi Maraga, Abdu Azare and Aminu Usman upheld the ruling of the Katagum upper Sharia court, which prescribed the punishment, but said the accused should not be banished from the area.

The judgment also stipulated that the punishment, which must be effected after Yunusa had delivered her baby in about four months, should be done publicly at Zaki, moderately because she is a female, adding that this would serve as a deterrent to others in line with Islamic rites.

Yunusa had earlier sued Katagum for impregnating her and refusing to marry her, but he was let off the hook for lack of evidence.

Katagun had denied the allegations, saying he never had any sexual intercourse with the complainant.

This Day, Lagos, 10 May 2002

Sharia: Man to Die for Raping 9-Year Girl

A 50-year-old Sariyyu Mohammed Baranda has been sentenced to death by stoning by an upper Sharia court in Dutse, Jigawa State.

Baranda, accused of raping a nine-year-old-girl on March 17, this year reportedly admitted that he committed the offence.

The judge, however, gave the accused time to think over his admission of the offence on three occasions, but he remained firm that he was guilty.

The prosecutor, Sergeant Adamu, pleaded with the court to deliver judgment based on the accused's admission of guilt.

The judge, Alhaji Jibrin Isa Gantsa, sentenced Baranda to death by stoning.

He would however receive 100 strokes of the cane and pay N10,000 bride price for defiling the girl before death is inflicted.

Baranda has one month to appeal to the Sharia court of appeal. Baranda is the first person to be sentenced to death since the state introduced Sharia penal code.