The Supreme court of Nigeria has written off Presidential pardon on Maryam Sanda as granted by President Bola Tinubu recently.
In a split decision of four-to-one, today, December 12, the Supreme court 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). She would now face death by hanging.
In a lead judgement, Justice Moore Adumein held that it was wrong for the President to seek to exercise executive power of pardon over a case of culpable homicide, in respect of which an appeal was pending.
The Supreme court insisted that the prosecution had 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.
The Apex Court looked at all the issues raised in the appeal she filed against her and dismissed the appeal for being without merit.
Maryam Sanda, a housewife in Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory, was in 2020, sentenced to death by hanging for killing her husband, Bilyaminu Bello, during a domestic dispute.
President Tinubu later this year, cancelled the judicial pronouncement and reduced her sentence to 12 years imprisonment on what was termed “compassionate grounds.”
