Court Sentences Maryam Sanda to Death by Hanging for Husband’s Murder

By Matilda Omonaiye, with Edith Nwapi and Ikenna Uwadilike/

Maryam Sanda, the woman who stabbed her husband to death in November 2017 was today sentenced to death at a Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja.

Maryam was sentenced to death by hanging for killing Bilyaminu, son of a former national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Haliru Bello.

Delivering judgment, Justice Yusuf Halilu, convicted her on circumstantial evidence.

The killing was premeditated, the police said.

The police accused Sanda of stabbing her husband with a broken bottle at about 3:50 a.m. on  November 18, 2017

The police also accused Maimuna Aliyu, Sanda’s mother; Aliyu, her brother, and Sadiya Aminu, her housemaid, of tampering with evidence by cleaning the blood and other proofs from the crime scene, but charges were later dropped.

The late Bello was reportedly attacked by Maryam at their Maitama, Abuja residence after she accused him of infidelity.

Maryam reportedly saw a text message on the deceased’s phone which got her angry.

She allegedly stabbed the deceased several times in the back and in other parts of the body.

After stabbing him, she drove him to the hospital where he died.

Unconfirmed reports said she had earlier stabbed the deceased on the left ear after which he was rushed to the hospital.

He was reportedly advised not to return home but he refused.

The couple had a daughter.

In a Facebook tribute then, a friend of the deceased, Eniola Akinkuotu, described him as “an extremely nice guy who hardly ever got angry”.

He said the deceased had complained in the past about his marriage but none of his friends took him seriously.

“He had complained in the past about his marriage but we never thought it would come to this. He had even said he wanted to leave his loveless marriage but I thought it was a joke. After all, this is what most men say when they want to have extra-marital affairs, so we thought,” the friend wrote.

(NAN)

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