Nairobi News

HashtagNews

Nigerian woman sentenced to death by hanging for killing her husband


A Nigerian court on Monday, convicted and sentenced Maryam Sanda, the daughter-in-law to former Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Mr Mohammed Bello Haliru, to death by hanging.

Sanda was found guilty of stabbing to death her husband, Bilyamin Bello, who was a real estate developer, in 2017.

Her trial centered on a judicial drama that lasted almost three years due to delays, multiple adjournments and failure of witnesses to appear in court among others.

During the ruling, Justice Yusuf Halilu said that circumstantial evidence before the court, as well as her testimony during the trial and her statement before the police, established that the accused stabbed her husband to death in Abuja on November 19, 2017 with a broken bottle.

“I am convinced that the defendant stabbed the deceased and therefore guilty of charges against her. She is hereby convicted of the murder of her husband as charged,” said the judge.

DEATH SENTENCE

According to The Guardian, Halilu in sentencing her said that from the entire circumstances of the case, justice to the society and to the deceased outweighs other elements of justice to the defendant.

“She should reap what she has sown, blood for blood. For it has been said that thou shall not kill and whoever kills in cold blood deserves death as his or her own reward or punishment. The mindless and senseless killing of men and women in our society must be seriously frowned upon. Accordingly, I hereby sentence Maryam Sanda to death by hanging,” the judge ruled.

Immediately after the sentencing, Sanda was whisked away from the court by officials who were accompanied by security operatives as her family member wailed in the open.