Maryam Sanda, alleged husband killer knows fate today

The woman, who allegedly stabbed her husband to death in Abuja, Maryam Sanda, will know her fate today when Justice Yusuf Halilu of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court delivers judgment in her protracted trial.

The police had charged her with culpable homicide in November 2017 and are seeking the death penalty in the two-count charge.

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

The killing was intentional the police said and court filings showed Ms. Sanda stabbed her husband with a broken bottle at about 3:50 am on the fateful day. The police said she did so with “absolute intent to kill him.”

However, the accused pleaded not guilty to the crime. After several attempts, Ms. Sanda secured bail with the conditions including an undertaking from her father to produce her in court until the end of the trial.

Charges against the defendant’s mother, Maimuna Aliyu, her brother, Aliyu Sanda and her housemaid, Sadiya Aminu for allegedly tampering with evidence by cleaning the blood and other proofs from the crime scene were later dropped.

The trial has dragged on for almost three years due to delays, multiple adjournments and failure of witnesses to appear in court.

The storm in the marriage between Maryam and the late Bilyaminu reached boiling point on the night of November 18, 2017. Multiple court testimonies, including that of the accused, indicated that the tragedy was triggered by a heated argument between the couple on the ill-fated night.

Ms. Sanda allegedly issued many threats to her husband, including that to chop off his male organ if he declines to grant her divorce, one of the six witnesses, Ibrahim Mohammed, called by the prosecution said.

He told the court he was with the deceased for over eight hours that night, revealing further that the couple’s argument had degenerated into a fight.

According to Mohammed, he tried disengaging Sanda’s hand from her husband’s neck before she rushed to break a bottle of groundnut on the wall and tried stabbing her husband with it.

“I held her hands and Bilyamin went behind her and collected the broken bottle from her.

“She said she would not stop until Bilyamin divorced her that night; that either he divorced her or she would cut his private part,” the witness recounted.

Mohammed said Sanda made bold her threat as she launched more violent attacks on the deceased before his eyes.

The witness narrated that the first defendant made another attempt to stab her husband after breaking a bottle of perfume, but her husband collected the bottle.

“The first defendant then went to the kitchen and picked a knife with which she attempted again to stab the deceased,” the witness said, adding that his late friend sustained several cuts while trying to disarm his wife.

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Mohammed said he left the house with another friend who he had called to help separate the fight, thinking that calm had been restored only to receive news of his friend’s death in the morning.

“I went to Maitama Hospital in the morning and met Bilyaminu lying on a bed in front of the hospital. There was a hole in his chest near the heart, bite marks on his stomach. There was a cut on his thigh and there was a sign of stitching on him,” he added.