Abuja High Court yesterday, sentenced Maryam Sanda to death by hanging for the murder of her husband, Bilyaminu Bello. In his judgment, Justice Yusuf Halilu, held that the prosecution established circumstantial evidence coupled with the testimony of Sanda and statement to the police that she “fatally” stabbed her husband dead in Abuja on November 19, 2017.
Meanwhile, immediately after the pronouncement, Sanda, who is a mother of two, her mother and relatives in court, broke down in tears. Her mother ran out of the courtroom as she wept uncontrollably, while her daughter followed behind in tears. But Justice Halilu, quickly ordered that Sanda should be brought back to the courtroom.
Following the confusion, the defence lawyer attempted to make a plea for allocutus (plea for mercy), but the judge said he needed to rise for the courtroom to be restored to normalcy. At resumption, the judge ordered that she should she be remanded in Suleja Correctional Centre, till she exhausts her right of appeal. Justice Halilu ,also said that there would be no room for allocutus as the offence was based on Section 221 of the Penal Code:
“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”,
Halilu said .
