Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the death sentence handed to Maryam Sanda, upholding her conviction in one of the country’s most closely watched murder cases.
The apex court’s decision came after reviewing appeals arguments from Sanda’s legal team, which sought to overturn her conviction on grounds including alleged procedural errors and claims of misapplication of the law. The court rejected all grounds for appeal, saying the evidence against Sanda was overwhelming and the lower court’s ruling was sound.
It held that the Court of Appeal’s decision that upheld the sentence that was passed by the trial court was unassailable.
The Supreme Court held that it was wrong for President Tinubu, being the head of the executive arm of the government, to seek to exercise his powers to grant a pardon over a case of culpable homicide, in respect of which an appeal was pending.
An Abuja high court had, on January 27, 2020, sentenced her to death by hanging after she was found guilty of stabbing her husband, Bilyamin Bello, to death at their Abuja residence in 2017.
Though she had already spent about six years and eight months at the Suleja prison, President Bola Tinubu, in the exercise of his executive powers, reduced her total sentence to 12 years.
The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), explained that her inclusion in the recent presidential pardon was based on “compassionate grounds and in the best interest of the children.”
Fagbemi listed some of the qualities that earned her clemency to include “good conduct, embraced a new lifestyle, model to prisoners, and remorsefulness.”
