It has taken 2 plus years for this conviction to finally come and finally according to the law court, husband killer Maryam Sanda has been found guilty of culpable homicide and for that, the court has ruled that she also must pay the supreme price too, which is death by hanging!
What a sad sad tale and sad end it is, for something that could have been avoided, if only restraint could have been employed and embraced.
Maybe now the family of her late murdered husband would finally find closure. But for her own family, friends and admirers, it's pain and anguish as they would see their daughter, sister, cousin, niece, grandchild and friend lose her life, for killing the former love of her life, Bilyaminu.
Delivering the judgment, Justice Yusuf Halilu, held that there was circumstantial evidence coupled with her testimony and statement to the police that she “fatally” stabbed her husband to death in Abuja on November 19, 2017.
The judge ordered that she should be remanded in Suleja prison till she would have exhausted all her right of appeal.
Maryam Sanda, a mother of two, her mom and her other relatives broke down in tears immediately the judge pronounced her guilt.
Maryam's mother who had occupied a back seat immediately ran out of the court as she wept profusely on hearing the judgment. Maryam herself in shock, while in tears rushed out of the courtroom too, which was just next to the dock, but the judge ordered that she should be brought back to the courtroom immediately.
In the middle of the ensuing confusion, the defense 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 then said he would return to deliver the sentence after some minutes.
When the judge eventually returned from the break, he said the offense for which Maryam was convicted being one based on Section 221 of the Penal Code, there would be no room for allocutus.
“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”.
