Appeal Court Affirms Maryam Sanda’s Death Sentence

Malik Yahya/

The court of appeal sitting in Abuja has affirmed the death sentence imposed on Maryam Sanda for killing her husband, Bilyamin Mohammed Bello.

The federal government had arraigned Sanda and three others on a two-count charge bordering on culpable homicide.

She was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging on January 27, 2020, by the trial judge, Yusuf Halilu.

Dissatisfied by the death sentence, Sanda approached the appellate court seeking to upturn the trial court’s judgment.

In a notice of appeal predicated on 20 grounds, the appellant through her legal team described the judgment of the trial court as “a miscarriage of justice”.

She submitted that the judge relied on circumstantial evidence as there was “lack of confessional statement, absence of murder weapon, lack of corroboration of evidence by two or more witnesses and lack of autopsy report to determine the true cause of her husband’s death.”

She also submitted the trial judge “erred and misdirected himself by usurping the role of the police when he assumed the duty of an investigating police officer (IPO) as contained in page 76 of his judgment…”

But the appellate court today upheld the death sentence.

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