Court Orders Husband To Re-marry Wife He Infected With HIV

An upper Shari’a court sitting at Sabon Gari, Kano, has ordered a middle-aged man to re-marry the wife he divorced after infecting her with the HIV/AIDs virus.

Abdullahi Ahmad was dragged to the court by ex-wife Umma Usman, who told the court that the defendant had divorced her and asked her to leave his house after infecting her.

Umma further told the court she had been married to Ahmad, who is her first husband, for about 13 years and that she had several children with him before she later found out that he is HIV/AIDs positive. The court also heard that the defendant issued the hapless woman a divorce letter knowing fully that he infected her with the disease.

Umma is asking the court to cancel the divorce issued to her by her husband and compel him to re-marry her since he is the one that infected her. In his verdict, the Judge, Malam Farouk Ahmad, granted the complainant’s plea, canceled the divorce issued to her by the husband and ordered him to immediately re-marry her.

Judge Ahmad said under Islamic Shari’a Law, it is binding on the husband to stay with the woman for the rest of his life being the one responsible for her getting an infection that has no known cure. He ordered him to take good care of the woman henceforth, adding that the court will be monitoring how he relates with her in their matrimonial home to ensure that he does not maltreat her.