The family of the late Bilyaminu Bello has condemned the presidential pardon granted to his wife, Maryam Sanda, describing the decision as “the worst possible injustice any family could be made to endure.”
Sanda was convicted and sentenced to d3ath by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court on January 27, 2020, for stabbing her husband, Bilyaminu Bello, to d3ath at their Abuja residence on November 19, 2017.
President Bola Tinubu recently approved the release of 175 inmates across the country under the Prerogative of Mercy policy, which empowers the President to grant clemency on humanitarian grounds. Sanda was among those released.
In a strongly worded statement issued on Monday, October 13, Dr. Bello Mohammed, speaking on behalf of the family, said the development had “reopened their healing wounds,” calling it a painful reversal of justice.
To have Maryam Sanda walk the face of the earth again, free from any blemish for her heinous crime as if she had merely squashed an ant, is the worst possible injustice any family could be made to go through for a loved one,”
the statement read.
The family expressed dismay that despite the gravity of the crime and the painstaking judicial process that culminated in the Supreme Court affirming her conviction, the Federal Government still chose to grant her clemency.
They recalled that the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court’s judgment on December 4, 2020, while the Supreme Court reaffirmed it on October 27, 2023 a decision that brought them a measure of closure after years of grief and legal battles.
Satisfied that justice had finally been served, the judgment provided some closure, if ever there could be one,” the family stated.
“Although the perpetrator had shown no remorse, even for a fleeting moment throughout the saga, the grieving family took solace in the judgments and moved on, having painfully come to terms with the fate that life had thrust upon one of our own.”
The statement concluded that the decision to pardon Sanda, coming just a few years after the brutal incident, had “cruelly reopened” their wounds and shattered their faith in justice.
This latest turn of events, coming just a few years after the dastardly crime that cut short Bilyaminu’s life, has, expectedly, reopened our healing wounds,” the family lamented.
