High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, has sentenced Maryam Sanda to death by hanging for the murder of her husband, Bilyaminu Bello.
Justice Yusuf Halilu, in his judgment, held that there was circumstantial evidence coupled with her testimony and statement to the police that she “fatally” stabbed her husband to death in Abuja on November 19, 2017.
Convicting her, Justice Halilu ordered that Sanda be remanded in Suleja prison till she exhausts her right of appeal.
Her deceased husband has been variously reported as a son or nephew of a former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Haliru Bello.
Sanda, the mother of two, her mother and her other relatives broke down in tears immediately the judge pronounced her guilty.
Her mother who was occupying a back seat bolted out of the court as she wept.
Sanda herself, while crying, rushed out of the courtroom, which was next to the dock, but the judge ordered that she should be brought back to the courtroom.
In the middle of the confusion, the defence lawyer attempted to make an allocutus (plea for mercy) but the judge said he needed to rise for the courtroom to be restored to normalcy.
The judge said he would return to deliver the sentence after some minutes.
When the judge returned from the break, he said the offence for which Sanda was convicted, being one based on Section 221 of the Penal Code, leaves no room for allocutus.
According to the judge, “It has been said that thou shall not kill. Whoever kills in cold blood shall die in cold blood.
“Maryam Sanda should reap what she has sown. It is blood for blood.”
