Court Sentences Sanda to Death for Killing Husband
Alex Enumah in Abuja
Justice Yusuf Halilu of an Abuja High Court yesterday sentenced Mrs. Maryam Sanda to death by hanging for the murder of her husband, Mr. Bilyaminu Bello.
Justice Halilu handed down the maximum sentence after he found Sanda guilty of the murder charge filed against her by the federal government.
Sanda was alleged to have killed Bello on November 19, 2017, through multiple stabbing and was arraigned alongside three other persons.
Delivering judgment in the suit, the trial judge held that there was circumstantial evidence coupled with her testimony and statement to the police that she "fatally" stabbed her husband to death.
Justice Halilu, however, held that she should be remanded in Suleja Correctional Centre till she exhausts her right of appeal.
The late Bello is said to be a son of a former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Haliru Bello.
Sanda, a mother of two, her mother and other relatives broke down in tears immediately the judge pronounced his verdict.
Her mother, who was occupying a back seat, sped out of the court as she wept.
Sanda, while crying, rushed out of the courtroom, which was next to the dock but the judge ordered that she should be brought back to the courtroom.
In the middle of the confusion, the defence lawyer attempted to make a plea for allocutus (plea for mercy) but the judge said he needed to rise for the courtroom to be restored to normalcy.
The judge said he would return to deliver the sentence after some minutes.
When the judge returned from the break, he said there would be no room for allocutus.
He said the offence was based on Section 221 of the Penal Code.
"It has been said that thou shall not kill. Whoever kills in cold blood shall die in cold blood," the judge said.
"Maryam Sanda should reap what she has sown," he said, adding: "It is blood for blood."
Cross River State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, yesterday denied being responsible for the trial of a journalist and activist, Mr. Agba Jalingo.
According to him, Jalingo is being tried for treason by the federal government and not the state.
Jalingo was arrested in Lagos on August 22, 2019 following an earlier report in his medium, Cross River Watch, on July 12 last year, accusing Ayade of corruption.
He was charged to court on August 30, 2019 over "various malicious publications," as well as a two-count charge of terrorism bordering on alleged plans to work with cult members and commit acts of terrorism to unseat Ayade.
But speaking with journalists at the State House, Abuja after a