By Newspot Nigeria News Desk
The Nigerian Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the death sentence by hanging imposed on Maryam Sanda for the killing of her husband, Bilyaminu Bello, dismissing her appeal in a split decision of four to one.
The apex court upheld the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Abuja, which had earlier affirmed the verdict of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory that convicted Sanda of culpable homicide and sentenced her to death.
Delivering the lead judgment, Justice Moore Adumein held that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and that the trial court properly evaluated the evidence placed before it. He ruled that there was no justification for the Supreme Court to interfere with the concurrent findings of the two lower courts.
In its judgment, the Supreme Court also criticised the executive clemency earlier granted to Sanda while her appeal was still pending before the court, holding that such intervention was inappropriate in the circumstances of the case. The court emphasised that criminal liability and sentencing fall within the exclusive domain of the judiciary until the judicial process is fully exhausted.
Maryam Sanda was initially listed among beneficiaries of presidential clemency approved at the September 2025 National Council of State meeting. Following public backlash, President Bola Tinubu ordered a review of the exercise, after which the presidency announced a revised outcome commuting her death sentence to 12 years’ imprisonment on compassionate grounds, citing the welfare of her children and her conduct in custody. However, the Supreme Court later affirmed the death sentence and faulted the exercise of executive clemency while the appeal was still pending.
Legal analysts note that the Supreme Court was required to determine the appeal on the basis of the subsisting judicial decisions before it. Under Nigeria’s constitutional framework, a presidential pardon or commutation may suspend the enforcement of a sentence but does not erase a conviction. Where executive clemency is exercised while an appeal is still pending, the courts retain full authority to assess the conviction and sentence in accordance with the law.
Sanda was convicted in 2020 for killing her husband during a domestic dispute at their Abuja residence. With the Supreme Court’s decision, the judicial process in the case has now been conclusively brought to an end.
— Newspot Nigeria
