SPOTTED: Maryam Sanda, sentenced to death for killing husband, among 175 pardoned by Tinubu

President Bola Tinubu has granted clemency to Maryam Sanda, who was sentenced to death for killing her husband in 2017.

Sanda was among the 175 persons who recently received a presidential pardon following the approval of the national council of state.

Sanda, 37, was sentenced to death for culpable homicide and had spent six years and eight months at Suleja Medium Security Custodial Centre.

Among the 175 beneficiaries are Herbert Macaulay, one of Nigeria’s foremost nationalists; Farouk Lawan, a former member of the house of representatives; and Mamman Vatsa, a major general and poet executed in 1986 over alleged treason.

Drug offenders, illegal miners, white-collar convicts, and foreigners are also among recipients of the presidential pardon.

Bayo Onanuga, special adviser to the president on information and strategy, said in a statement on Saturday that Sanda’s family pleaded for her release in the best interest of her two children.

“The plea was also anchored on her good conduct in jail, her remorse, and her embracement of a new lifestyle, demonstrating her commitment to being a model prisoner,” the president’s aide said.

In November 2017, Sanda was arrested and convicted for stabbing Bilyamin Mohammed Bello, her husband, to death over alleged infidelity.

She claimed that the late Bello died after falling on a broken piece of ‘Shisha’ pot during an argument.

Bello was the nephew of Haliru Mohammed Bello, a former national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Sanda was arraigned on a two-count charge of culpable homicide.

In January 2020, a federal capital territory (FCT) high court found Sanda guilty of killing Bello and sentenced her to death by hanging.

Yusuf Halilu, the trial judge, held that after putting Sanda’s testimony alongside that of two witnesses, questioning whether the shisha pot broke before or after Bello’s death.

The judge said Sanda “woefully failed” to explain the cause of her husband’s death, going by the doctrine of “last seen”.

In December 2020, the court of appeal in Abuja affirmed the decision of the trial court and dismissed the appeal of Sanda.