Maryam Sanda: Supreme Court Overrules Tinubu’s Clemency Plea

The Supreme Court has overruled President Bola Tinub’s plea of clemency for Maryam Sanda sentenced to death five years ago, after being found guilty of fatally stabbing her husband.

Sanda had been convicted on January 27, 2020, by an Abuja High Court, for stabbing Bilyamin Bello fatally  at their Maitama home in 2017, and subsequently sentenced to death by hanging.

She had spent about six years and eight months at the Suleja Correctional Centre before President Bola Tinubu granted her clemency, reducing the sentence to 12 years’ imprisonment.

However, the Supreme Court on Friday upheld the death sentence imposed on Maryam Sanda, daughter-in-law of a former National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, over the killing of her husband, Bilyamin Bello.

Sanda was convicted on January 27, 2020, by an Abuja High Court, which found her guilty of fatally stabbing Bello at their Maitama home in 2017.

She was subsequently sentenced to death by hanging.

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She had spent about six years and eight months at the Suleja Correctional Centre before President Bola Tinubu granted her clemency, reducing the sentence to 12 years’ imprisonment, but which the Supreme Court rejected, in a split decision of four to one decision.

Dismissing her appeal in its entirety, the court ruled that Maryam Sanda failed to show any error in the concurrent findings of the lower courts.

Justice Moore Adumein who delivered the lead judgment, held that the prosecution proved the charge beyond reasonable doubt and that the Court of Appeal was right to affirm the conviction.

The apex court thus discountenanced the Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN)’s the inclusion of Sanda’s name in the presidential pardon