Supreme Court upturns Tinubu’s pardon for Maryam Sanda, affirms death sentence

By : Ameh Ochojila

Date: 13 December 2025 3:53am WAT

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Maryam Sanda

Maryam Sanda

The Supreme Court, on Friday, upturned the pardon granted an Abuja-based house wife, Maryam Sanda, by President Bola Tinubu.

Sanda was in 2020 sentenced to death by hanging for killing her husband, Bilyaminu Bello, during a domestic dispute.   Tinubu had reduced Sanda’s sentence to 12 years imprisonment on compassionate grounds.   But in a judgment, on Friday, the Supreme Court, in a split decision of four-to-one, affirmed the death sentence handed Sanda by the Court of Appeal, Abuja, which upheld the decision of a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), sentencing her to death by hanging.   The Apex Court resolved all the issues raised in the appeal she filed, dismissing the appeal for being without merit.

Justice Moore Adumein, in the lead judgment, which he personally delivered, held that the prosecution proved the case beyond reasonable doubt as required, adding that the Court of Appeal was right to have affirmed the judgement of the trial court.   Justice Adumein held that it was wrong for the executive arm of government to seek to exercise its power of pardon over a case of culpable homicide, in respect of which an appeal was pending.

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