Yayaha Sidi Na Khalifa, father of a 19-year-old bride, Fatima Aliyu, who was killed by her co-wife in Niger State after her wedding, has demanded death penalty for those responsible for his daughter’s gruesome murder.
The late bride was said to have been beaten to death with a pestle and her body set on fire by her husband’s first wife, Amina, in Minna, 50 days after her wedding on March 23, 2021.
The commissioner of police in the state, Muhammed Adamu, who spoke to BBC Hausa after the incident, confirmed that the principal suspect, Amina, and three other suspected accomplices have been arrested.
Na Khalifa, in an interview with Daily Trust, said he wants justice to take its course by ensuring that the perpetrators of the heinous crime are brought to book.
The grieving father said it is not wrong in Islam if an aggrieved person decides to seek justice.
He added that the Holy Qur’an has clearly spelt out the punishment for someone who kills another without a just cause.
“I will never forgive the blood of my daughter. The Qur’an says ‘We had ordained for them a life for a life’…, so I want to see that judgement is passed on the perpetrators of this dreadful act”, he said.
“No! I will never forgive them. If it was an accident or unintentional manslaughter, that is a different issue. But you beat my daughter to death and as if that was not enough, you also set her body ablaze, that I will never forgive”.
Na Khalifa disclosed that he received the news of his daughter’s death with mixed feelings, explaining that the happiness was borne out of the conviction that, “the Prophet Muhammad, who does not tell anything but the truth, had given glad tidings to anyone killed unjustly that they will abide in paradise”.
“Based on those glad tidings, I have no iota of doubt that my daughter will be among the dwellers of the paradise and that makes me happy. But I am grieved and it is really agonising bearing in mind that I will see her no more in this world and I am pained thinking what she went through in the hands of her assailants,” he stated.
The bereaved father described his daughter as a peaceful and a well behaved girl, who was different from her siblings in terms of good character.
He said though he does not have the money to take up the case, he heard that the Emir of Minna has shown interest in the matter.
Na Khalifa also revealed that some human rights groups have also indicated interest in pursuing the matter to its conclusion.
