A 17-year-old boy has been arraigned before an Islamic court in the northern Nigerian city of Sokoto in the murder of his stepmother and faces execution if convicted, local radio reported Tuesday. He would be the second to be executed under Sharia law, the strict Islamic code that has been reintroduced in many northern Nigerian states since January 2000. Bashir Husseini is charged with stabbing his stepmother Hadiza Husseini to death on Monday in a dispute over keys to his father’s garage, Rima radio said in a report. The boy allegedly confessed to the police and the court that he killed the woman in anger, the report said. – AFP
Tuesday February 12, 2001