The Supreme Court has set aside the presidential pardon earlier granted by President Bola Tinubu to Maryam Sanda, an Abuja housewife convicted in 2020 for killing her husband, Bilyaminu Bello, during a domestic altercation.
President Tinubu had commuted Sanda’s death sentence to 12 years’ imprisonment on compassionate grounds.
However, in a split 4–1 decision delivered on Friday, the Supreme Court reinstated the death verdict earlier affirmed by the Court of Appeal, which had upheld the judgment of an FCT High Court sentencing her to death by hanging.
The apex court dismissed Sanda’s appeal in its entirety, ruling that it lacked merit.
In the lead judgment, Justice Moore Adumein stated that the prosecution had proven the case beyond reasonable doubt as required by law, and that the Court of Appeal acted correctly in affirming the trial court’s decision.
Justice Adumein further held that the Executive erred by attempting to grant a pardon in a culpable homicide case while the matter was still under appeal.
