Maryam Sanda, sentenced to death for killing husband, among 175 pardoned by Tinubu

President Bola Tinubu has granted clemency to Maryam Sanda,who was sentenced to death for killing her husband in 2017. Sanda was among the 175 persons who recently received apresidential pardon following the approval of the national council of state. Sanda, 37, was sentenced to death for culpable homicide andhad spent six years and eight months at Suleja Medium Security CustodialCentre. Among the 175 beneficiaries are Herbert Macaulay, one ofNigeria’s foremost nationalists; Farouk Lawan, a former member of the house ofrepresentatives; and Mamman Vatsa, a major general and poet executed in 1986over alleged treason. Drug offenders, illegal miners, white-collar convicts, andforeigners are also among recipients of the presidential pardon. Bayo Onanuga, special adviser to the president oninformation and strategy, said in a statement on Saturday that Sanda’s familypleaded for her release in the best interest of her two children. “The plea was also anchored on her good conduct in jail, herremorse, and her embracement of a new lifestyle, demonstrating her commitmentto being a model prisoner,” the president’s aide said. In November 2017, Sanda was arrested and convicted forstabbing Bilyamin Mohammed Bello, her husband, to death over allegedinfidelity. She claimed that the late Bello died after falling on abroken piece of ‘Shisha’ pot during an argument. Bello was the nephew of Haliru Mohammed Bello, a formernational chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Sanda was arraigned on a two-count charge of culpablehomicide. In January 2020, a federal capital territory (FCT) highcourt found Sanda guilty of killing Bello and sentenced her to death byhanging. Yusuf Halilu, the trial judge, held that after puttingSanda’s testimony alongside that of two witnesses, questioning whether theshisha pot broke before or after Bello’s death. The judge said Sanda “woefully failed” to explain the causeof her husband’s death, going by the doctrine of “last seen”. In December 2020, the court of appeal in Abuja affirmed thedecision of the trial court and dismissed the appeal of Sanda.

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