The Supreme Court has overturned the clemency granted to Maryam Sanda and affirmed the death sentence earlier handed to her for killing her husband, Bilyamin Bello.
Sanda was originally convicted on January 27, 2020, after an Abuja High Court found that she stabbed Bello to death during a dispute at their Maitama residence in 2017. She was sentenced to death by hanging and remained in Suleja Correctional Centre for nearly seven years.
Her sentence was later reduced to 12 years by President Bola Tinubu.
The Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), defended the presidential pardon at the time, saying it was approved “on compassionate grounds and in the best interest of the children,” noting her “good conduct, new lifestyle, model behaviour and remorsefulness.”
But on Friday, a five-member Supreme Court panel delivered a 4–1 judgment, throwing out Sanda’s appeal and reinstating the death penalty. The justices held that she failed to demonstrate any flaw in the decisions of the FCT High Court or the Court of Appeal.
In the lead ruling, Justice Moore Adumein stated that the prosecution had proven its case “beyond reasonable doubt,” adding that the appellate court acted correctly in upholding her conviction.
The apex court also criticised President Tinubu’s intervention, declaring it improper for the Executive to issue clemency “in a homicide case while an appeal was still pending.”
