S/Court Overrides Pardon For Mariam Sanda, Affirms Death Sentence

The Supreme Court has overridden the pardon granted by President Bola Tinubu to an Abuja-based house wife, Maryam Sanda, who was in 2020 sentenced to death by hanging for killing her husband, Bilyaminu Bello, in a domestic dispute.

President Tinubu had reduced Sanda’s sentence to 12 years imprisonment on compassionate ground.

But in a judgment on Friday, the Supreme Court, in a split decision of four-to-one, affirmed the death sentence handed Sanda by the Court of Appeal, Abuja which upheld the decision of a HIgh Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), sentencing her to death by hanging.

The Apex Court resolved all the issues raised in the appeal she filed against her and dismissed the appeal for being without merit.

Justice Moore Adumein held in the lead judgment, which he personally delivered, that the prosecution proved the case beyond reasonable doubt as required, adding that the Court of Appeal was right to have affirmed the judgement of the trial court.

Justice Adumein held that it was wrong for the Executive to seek to exercise its power of pardon over a case of culpable homicide, in respect of which an appeal was pending.

Garry Ochigbo, Edited By Grace Namiji