The Supreme Court has overridden the pardon granted by President Bola Tinubu to an Abuja-based house wife, Maryam Sanda, who was in 2020 sentenced to death by hanging for killing her husband, Bilyaminu Bello, during a domestic dispute.
President Tinubu had reduced Sanda’s sentence to 12 years imprisonment on compassionate ground.
But in a judgment a on Friday, the Supreme Court, in a split decision of four-to-one, affirmed the death sentence handed 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.
The Nation
But in a judgment a on Friday, the Supreme Court, in a split decision of four-to-one, affirmed the death sentence handed 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.
The Nation
Kill and be killed.
ReplyDeleteNa who die naim lose.
ReplyDeleteWrong judgement. I wonder who dissented and why.
ReplyDeleteYou do not know who dissented and why. That means you have not read the leading and the dissenting judgments. Yet you call the judgment wrong. Because the victim is a man or because the President had done the Supreme Court's job, or ...?
DeleteNo, i havent read the judgement. Did you put it online? Ewu gambia.
DeleteThe Death Sentence is a barbaric practice only in place in barbaric places like Nigeria.
Its unjust and unfair to sentence her to death again even though that tilumbu did a stupid thing as usual.
I believe the power to pardon remains an exclusive prerogative of the president. This case was already in the courts before the president reduced her sentence. The supreme court merely passed judgement on a case that was destined to come before it as far as the appeals process goes. Nothing stops the president from setting her free if he so desires now that the case has run to an end.
ReplyDeleteIANAL though so I might be off.
The President should have waited till the SCN delivered its judgment.
DeleteSeparation of powers (not Kabiesi-ship) is the soul of constitutional democracy, .
Yes, the President may decide to exercise the power again.
By then people can rightly ask what is in it for him personally.
And whether his gains are more than what is in the matter for the gone man's memory and for majority of his family.
As the lawyers cliche goes, criminal justice is a three way street - one for the victim, one for the defendant, and one for the society which does not want criminal acts as its norm.
Where are those that insinuated that her mother had already flown her abroad.
ReplyDeletePlease, will see be returned back for prosecution?
GOOD 👍🏽
ReplyDelete