CRIME Man to die by hanging for Bilyamin Bello’s killing: Murder trial against Maryam Sanda starts today beheading 7-yr-old boy

ANasarawa State High Court in Lafia has sentenced a man to death by hanging for beheading a seven-year-old boy in 2012.

Justice James Abundaga, in his judgement yesterday, said the court found John Yakubu guilty of culpable homicide punishable by death, based on his confessional statement.

He said the convict was arrested alongside one Ishaya Daklung by operatives of the Department for State Security Service (DSS) on July 22, 2012.

The judge said Yakubu was also found in possession of a fresh head of Samuel Danjuma, concealed in a polythene bag.

Abundaga held that Yakubu had in his confessional statement, lured the boy, his neighbour’s son, to a stream in Agwan Galadima in Nasarawa Local Government and drowned him before removing his head.

The judge said the death sentence was in line with Section 221 of the penal code.

Abundaga, however, sentenced the second accused, Daklung, to four years in prison with hard labour for being in possession of human head, saying that Daklung’s sentence was in line with Section 219 of the penal code.

Abundaga said the severed head of the victim had been deposited at the Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital, Lafia morgue since the incident. (NAN) The trial of Maryam Sanda who was alleged to have killed her husband, Bilyamin Bello will commence today before an FCT High Court in Jabi.

The FCT Police Command in a two-count charge accused Maryam, the daughter of a former Executive Director of Aso Savings and Loans, Hajiya Maimuna Aliyu Sanda, of killing Bello, the son of Alhaji Bello Halliru Muhammad, a former chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

They alleged that Maryam had caused the death of Bello “by stabbing him on the chest with a broken bottle which eventually led to his death and you did with the knowledge that your act is likely to cause his death.”

Upon her arraignment on November 24, the court ordered that she be remanded in prisons after she pleaded not guilty to the charge levied against her.

Maryam’s lawyer, Barrister Husseini Musa had orally pleaded with the court to release Maryam on bail pending the determination of the case or consider her status as a nursing mother and order that she be returned to police custody instead of prisons.

The trial judge, Justice Yusuf Halilu however said “It is not proper to send the defendant back to the custody of the prosecution once arraignment has been done.”

He thereafter adjourned the case to today, December 7 for hearing.