The Supreme Court of Nigeria on Friday overturned President Bola Tinubu’s pardon for Maryam Sanda, affirming her original death sentence for the murder of her husband, Bilyaminu Bello.
A five-member panel of the Supreme Court delivered a split decision of four-to-one, dismissing Sanda’s appeal against her conviction.
Sanda had been sentenced to death by the FCT High Court in 2020, a verdict subsequently upheld by the Court of Appeal.
Tinubu had, however, commuted the death sentence to 12 years imprisonment on compassionate grounds as part of a larger executive clemency exercise.
Delivering the lead judgment, Justice Moore Adumein held that the prosecution had proven the charge of culpable homicide beyond a reasonable doubt, and the lower courts were correct in their affirmations.
Justice Adumein also held that Tinubu’s pardon for Maryam Sanda was wrong because the case was a culpable homicide and an appeal was still pending before the courts.
The ruling emphasizes the principle that the judicial process must run its full course and that executive clemency cannot override a pending or subsisting judicial review.
Pan-Atlantic Kompass reports that Tinubu’s pardon for Maryam Sanda had been greeted by a backlash from opposition parties and political figures, including the African Democratic Congress and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who condemned the decision.
Many Nigerians had also criticised the President’s decision to grant presidential pardons to dozens of convicted criminals, including drug traffickers, describing the move as a grave setback to Nigeria’s anti-drug campaign and a dangerous affront to justice and morality.
However, after backlash for granting a presidential pardon to Maryam Sanda, sentenced to death in 2020 for the killing of her husband, Bilyaminu Bello, Tinubu has revoked the pardon and reversed her sentence to 12 years.
This was revealed in an official gazette released by the government.
It read, “Maryam Sanda, whose offence was culpable homicide, sentenced on 27/01/2020 with death by hanging, has served six years and eight months at the Medium Security Custodial Centre (MSCC), Suleja will now serve 12 years based on compassionate grounds, in the best interest of the children and good conduct, embraced a new lifestyle, model prisoner and remorsefulness.”
In the gazette titled “reduced terms”, the explanatory note stressed that the beneficiaries whose names were listed therein were in pursuance of section 175 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).
