Woman Pleads Not Guilty After Allegedly Hacking Children to Death Over Husband’s Second Marriage

Hauwa Habibu, a 26-year-old woman, who was arrested and arraigned before a magistrate court in Kano for allegedly hacking her two children to death has pleaded not guilty.

The police had in October arrested Hauwa, a health worker, for killing her two biological children: Irfan Ibrahim, six-year-old and Zuhura Ibrahim, three-year-old, in protest at her husband’s decision to marry a second wife.

She was also said to have wounded one Aisha Sadiq, her nephew.

The uncle of the deceased children, Sadiq Haruna Aminu, said Hauwa had been living with envy and jealousy since his brother married another wife, leading her to kill her own children.

At the resumed sitting on Wednesday, December 23, after her denial, counsel for Hauwa, Huwaila Ibrahim, asked the court to send her to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation. The prayer was not objected by the prosecutor, Laminu Soron Dinki.

The presiding magistrate, Hauwa Lawan Minjibir, upheld Ibrahim’s request by sending the accused person to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation. He then adjourned the matter to January 5, 2021.