Judgment Day For Maryam Sanda, The Alleged Husband Killer

Bilyaminu Haliru Bello and Maryam Sanda: Judgment Day in murder trial today

Justice Yusuf Halilu of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Abuja will today deliver judgment in the murder charge against Ms. Maryam Sanda, accused of stabbing her husband to death in November 2017.

The Nigerian police charged Ms Sanda with two-counts of culpable homicide same month, seeking the death penalty.

The victim, Bilyaminu Bello, was the son of a former national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Haliru Bello.

His killing was premeditated, the police said.

Court filings showed Ms Sanda stabbed her husband with broken bottles at about 3:50 a.m. on 18 November 2017, with “absolute intent to kill” him.

Multiple court testimonies and evidence including that of the accused indicated that the tragedy was triggered by a heated argument between Maryam and Bilyaminu.

During the argument, according to a witness, Maryam Sanda made several attempts to kill her husband, including threatening to chop off his sex organ if he declined to give her freedom from their marriage.

In her testimony before the court, Ms Sanda admitted that the two-year marriage that produced a baby girl was fraught with irreconcilable differences that reached a tragic climax on that November night.

She however denied killing her husband or nursing such intentions. The mother-of-one said trouble started after she discovered nude pictures of another woman in her late husband’s phone and confronted him.

Ms Sanda claimed she had asked for a divorce before arguments which continued late into the night snowballed into fisticuffs.