By Editor

The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, yesterday, affirmed the death sentence imposed on Maryam Sanda over the death of her husband, Bilyamin Mohammed Bello.

The Federal Government had arraigned Sanda and three others on a two-count charge bordering on culpable homicide.

She was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging on January 27, this year by Justice Yusuf Halilu, who said: “She should reap what she has sown, for it has been said that ‘thou shall not kill’ and whoever kills in cold blood deserves death as his own reward.

“Convict also clearly deserves to die. Accordingly, I hereby sentence Maryam Sanda to death by hanging until she dies.”

Dissatisfied, Sanda approached the appellate court, seeking to upturn the judgment.

In a notice of appeal predicated on 20 grounds, the appellant, through her legal team, described the judgment as “a miscarriage of justice,” submitting that the trial Judge relied on circumstantial evidence, as there was ‘lack of confessional statement, absence of murder weapon, lack of corroboration of evidence by two or more witnesses and lack of autopsy report to determine the true cause of her husband’s death.”

She also submitted the trial Judge “erred and misdirected himself by usurping the role of the Police when he assumed the duty of an Investigating Police Officer (IPO), as contained in page 76 of his judgment…”

But yesterday, the appellate court upheld the death sentence.

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