By Nchetachi Chukwuajah
The Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of Maryam Sanda, who was found guilty of stabbing her husband, Bilyaminu Bello, to death in November 2017.
The five-member panel of justices of the Supreme Court, in a judgement of four to one, on Friday, December 12, reaffirmed the judicial pronouncement that ordered her death by hanging.
Sanda was found guilty of culpable homicide and sentenced to death by hanging by an Abuja high court on January 27, 2020, following a ruling by Justice Yusuf Halilu of the FCT High Court in Abuja after over two years of trial.
Her legal team later filed an appeal on 20 grounds, questioning the evidence and alleging bias in her conviction. Still, the Court of Appeal dismissed her appeal on December 3, 2020, affirming the conviction and death sentence.
However, after she had already spent about six years and eight months at the Suleja prison, President Bola Tinubu, in the exercise of his executive powers, granted her and 174 others clemency in October 2025 and reduced her total sentence to 12 years.
In its ruling on Friday, the Supreme Court resolved all the issues Sanda raised and set aside her conviction and sentence, and dismissed her appeal for want of merit.
In the lead judgment delivered by Justice Moore Adumein, the apex court held that the prosecution established her guilt beyond every reasonable doubt.
“The appeal is without merit and is hereby dismissed,” Justice Adumein said.
The court 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.
