Maryam Sanda heads to Supreme Court as Appeal Court upholds her death sentence
Maryam Sanda, was sentenced to death for killing her husband, Sanda plans to file an appeal at the Supreme
Court in a bid to overturn the judgements of the lower courts.
Sanda had on November 19, 2017 stabbed her husband, Bilyaminu who was a son of former Democratic People’s
Party National Chairman, Dr Haliru Bello, to death following an allegation of infidelity against him after seeing
a text message on his phone.
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Her counsel and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Joe Gadzama, disclosed this to reporters on Friday in Abuja.
This followed the judgement of the Court of Appeal in Abuja which upheld the verdict of the Federal Capital
Territory (FCT) High Court sentencing Sanda to death by hanging for killing Bilyaminu Bello.
Late Bilyaminu, who was stabbed to death, While Sanda argued that she was denied a fair hearing by the trial
court and insisted that she was innocent, the appellate court held that the appeal lacked merit.
In a two-hour judgement read by Justice Steven Adah, the court held that it was duty-bound to do justice
according to law and not sentiments, stressing that the law does not leave room for irregularities and parties
must conduct criminal trials according to the law.
It said the trial court was right in its verdict under Section 221 of the Penal Code, noting that the crime
committed was punishable by death.
The appellate court held that it was not in doubt that Sanda killed her husband and it has no reason to set aside
the judgment of the lower court.
It added that there was evidence that she murdered her husband during a fight after she saw a nude picture on
his phone, and she had threatened him.
Displeased with the judgment of the appellate court, Sanda’s counsel said they would approach the Supreme
Court to overturn the verdict.
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