BREAKING: Appeal Court Affirms Maryam Sanda’s Death Sentence

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has affirmed the death sentence of Maryam Sanda, who was handed the judgement in January, 2020 after she was found guilty of stabbing her husband to death.

Sanda had reportedly stabbed her husband, Bello Bilyaminu, to death on November 19, 2017. She was handed the death sentence by Justice Yusuf Halilu of the Federal Capital Territory High Court.

Bilyaminu, who was the son of a former national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Haliru Bello, was allegedly killed by his wife in their Abuja residence.

Sanda had approached the appellate court to set aside the death sentence pronounced on her on the grounds that she was denied fair hearing.

She claimed in the appeal that she was sentenced based on “circumstantial evidence”, saying there were no confessional statements, murder weapon or at least two witnesses to back the allegation that she killed Bilyaminu.

But ruling in Sanda’s appeal on Friday, Justice Steven Adah, who presided over the matter, dismissed it for lacking in merit.