The Supreme Court on Friday reinstated the death sentence earlier handed to Maryam Sanda for the killing of her husband, Bilyamin Bello.
Sanda, daughter-in-law of a former PDP National Chairman, was convicted in 2020 for stabbing Bello to death at their Maitama residence in 2017.
She was sentenced to death by hanging and had spent nearly seven years at the Suleja Correctional Centre before President Bola Tinubu granted her clemency, reducing the punishment to 12 years’ imprisonment.
The Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), later defended the pardon, describing it as compassionate and in the interest of the couple’s children.
But a five-man panel of the Supreme Court, in a 4–1 split judgment, overturned the presidential intervention and upheld the original death sentence.
The court ruled that Sanda’s appeal lacked merit and that she failed to demonstrate any error in the decisions of the trial court and the Court of Appeal.
Justice Moore Adumein, who delivered the lead judgment, held that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt. He affirmed that the findings of the lower courts were sound and required no interference.
The apex court also faulted President Tinubu’s clemency, declaring it inappropriate for the Executive to alter a sentence in a homicide case while the matter was still on appeal.
With the judgment, Sanda’s death sentence stands as originally pronounced by the Abuja High Court in January 2020.
