A Federal Capital Territory, FCT, High Court on Monday, January 27, convicted and sentenced to death by hanging, Maryam Sanda, for the alleged murder of her husband, Bilyaminu Bello.
Handing the verdict, Justice Yusuf Halilu, 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.
Justice Halilu also ordered that she be remanded in Suleja prison till she exhausts her right of appeal.
Biliyaminu, Maryam’s deceased husband has been variously reported as a son or nephew of a former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Haliru Bello.
The convict, a mother of two, Sanda, her mother and other relatives broke down in tears immediately the judge returned a guilty verdict.
Full of grief, Sanda’s mother, who was occupying a back seat, sped out of the court, weeping; while the convict Alao rushed out of the courtroom crying, but the presiding judge order that she be brought back to the courtroom.
In the middle of the confusion, the defence lawyer tried to make a plea for allocutus, but the judge declared a shirt adjournment for normalcy to return to the courtroom, adding that he would return to deliver the sentence when normalcy is guaranteed.
On his return from the short break, the judge declared that there would be no room for allocutus, saying that the offence for which the convict was convicted was based on Section 221 of the Penal Code.
He said, “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”.
