The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the death sentence earlier imposed on Maryam Sanda, daughter-in-law of a former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for the killing of her husband, Bilyamin Bello.
Sanda was convicted on January 27, 2020, by an Abuja High Court, which found her guilty of fatally stabbing Bello at their Maitama residence in 2017. She was subsequently sentenced to death by hanging.
Before the Supreme Court’s latest decision, Sanda had spent about six years and eight months at the Suleja Correctional Centre. President Bola Tinubu later granted her clemency, commuting the death sentence to 12 years’ imprisonment. The Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), defended the decision, saying the pardon was granted on compassionate grounds and in the best interest of her children, noting her “good conduct, new lifestyle, model behaviour and remorsefulness.”
However, in a split decision of four to one, a five-member panel of the Supreme Court on Friday reinstated the original death sentence. The court dismissed Sanda’s appeal in its entirety, holding that she failed to demonstrate any error in the findings of the trial court and the Court of Appeal.
Delivering the lead judgment, Justice Moore Adumein ruled that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and that the Court of Appeal was right to affirm her conviction.
The apex court also criticised President Tinubu’s intervention, declaring it inappropriate for the Executive to grant clemency in a homicide case while an appeal was still pending.
With Friday’s decision, the death sentence imposed by the High Court stands.
