The Supreme Court overrides pardon granted by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to an Abuja-based housewife, Maryam Sanda, who was in 2020 sentenced to death by hanging for killing her husband Bilyayaminu Bello, during a domestic dispute.
President Tinubu had reduced Sanda’s sentenced to 12 years imprisonment on compassionate ground. But in a judgment on Friday December 12, 2025, the court, in a split decision of four-to-one, affirmed the death sentence handed to Sanda by the Court of Appeal, Abuja which upheld the decision of 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 against her and dismissed the appeal for being without merit.
Justice Moore Adumein held in the lead judgment, which he personally delivered, that the prosecution proved the case beyond reasonable doubt as required, adding that the Court of Appeal was right to have affirmed the judgment of the trial court.
Justice Adumein held that it was wrong for the Executive to seek to exercise it power of pardon over a case of culpable homicide, in respect of which the appeal was pending.
-9News Nigeria.
