Convicted of killing her husband, Maryam Sanda gets Tinubu’s pardon

President Bola Tinubu has granted a presidential pardon to Maryam Sanda, who was sentenced to death in 2020 for the murder of her husband, Bilyaminu Bello, son of a former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chairman.

Sanda, who had spent six years and eight months at the Suleja Medium Security Custodial Centre, was among 175 Nigerians and foreigners granted clemency by the President.

According to a statement released on Saturday by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, the decision followed the recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy, chaired by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN).

Onanuga explained that Sanda’s family appealed for her release, citing the welfare of her two children and her demonstrated remorse and good conduct in prison. He added that she had “embraced a new lifestyle and shown commitment to rehabilitation, serving as a model inmate.”

The pardon formed part of one of the most comprehensive exercises of the presidential prerogative of mercy in recent years, which also included posthumous pardons for the late environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, Major General Mamman Vatsa, and other members of the “Ogoni Nine.”

Sanda’s case drew national attention in January 2020, when Justice Yusuf Halilu of the FCT High Court, Abuja, convicted her of stabbing her husband to death during a domestic dispute. The judge had declared that “whoever kills in cold blood deserves death as his own reward.”

Her legal team filed a 20-ground appeal, challenging the conviction and alleging bias, but the Court of Appeal dismissed the case on December 3, 2020, affirming both the conviction and death sentence. Justice Stephen Adah, who delivered the appellate judgment, noted that “the circumstances surrounding the death provide the clearest evidence of guilt.”

Despite the police’s readiness to defend the conviction at the Supreme Court, the President’s clemency has now effectively brought the long-running legal battle to a close.

The full pardon list, released on Saturday, includes six categories: pardon recipients, posthumous pardons (such as the Ogoni Nine), honoured victims, clemency beneficiaries, inmates with reduced sentences, and death row inmates whose sentences were commuted to life imprisonment.