Nigeria child bride 'poisons husband' twice her age and his friends

Fourteen-year-old girl admitted to putting rat poison in her husbands food a week after being forced to marry him

A view of Kano, in Nigeria where a 14-year-old girl forced into an arranged marriage has admitted to killing her husband and three of his friends (Wikimedia commons/ Shiraz Chakera)

A 14-year-old girl forced into an arranged marriage has admitted to killing her husband and three of his friends by putting rat poison in their meal, police in Nigeria have said.

The teenager had been forced to marry 35-year-old Umaru Sani the week before his death, police superintendent Musa Magaji Majia said.

The girl said Sani had then invited a dozen friends to celebrate the marriage at the village they lived in, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the northern city of Kano.

The teenager admitted to putting rat poison in a dish of rice she had prepared for them, according to police. 

Mr Majia said: "The suspect confessed to committing the crime and said she did it because she was forced to marry a man she did not love."

The girl's father had forced her to marry the man, police said. She is expected to be charged with culpable homicide and tried in a juvenile court.

Child marriage is common in Nigeria and fifty per cent of Nigerian girls living in rural areas are married before they turn 18, according to the UN children's agency.

Additional reporting by Associated Press