The Supreme Court has overruled the pardon granted by President Bola Tinubu to an Abuja-based house wife, Maryam Sanda,
and affirmed the death sentence passed on her by the concurrent decisions of the two lower courts.
Maryam was in 2020 sentenced to death by hanging for killing her husband, Bilyaminu Bello, during a domestic dispute.
President Tinubu this year granted her a presidential pardon and reduced Sanda’s sentence to 12 years imprisonment on compassionate ground.
The Supreme Court held that it was wrong for the Executive to seek to exercise its power of pardon over a case of culpable homicide, in respect of which an appeal was pending.
In a judgment on Friday, December 12, 2025 on her appeal in which issues have been joined , the Supreme Court in a split decision of four-to-one, affirmed the death sentence handed Maryam Sanda by the Court of Appeal, Abuja which upheld the decision of a 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 judgement of the trial court.
Justice Adumein held that it was wrong for the Executive to seek to exercise its power of pardon over a case of culpable homicide, in respect of which an appeal was pending..