Maryam Sanda has been sentenced to death for stabbing her husband, Bilyamin Bello to death by an Abuja High Court sitting at Maitama.

The husband is the son of former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Mohammed Bello Haliru.

Justice Yusuf Halilu held that circumstantial evidence before the court, as well as Maryam’s testimony during the trial and her statement before the police, established that she fatally stabbed her husband to death in Abuja on November 19, 2017.

The court ordered that the convict should remain at the Correctional Center in Suleja till she exhausts her right of appeal.

In the charge marked CR/15/17 which Police filed pursuant to section 109(d) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, Maryam was accused of stabbing her husband to death with a broken bottle, at their Abuja residence.

The prosecution told the court that Bilyamin died as a result of several stabs on his chest and neck. Police maintained that the defendant attacked her husband with the knowledge that her act was likely to cause his death. She was equally charged with the offence of “causing grievous hurt”, contrary to section 247 of the Penal Code Law.

Though her mother, Maimuna Aliyu, her brother, Aliyu Sanda and one Sadiya Aminu, were initially charged as co-defendant in the matter, they were discharged by the court which held that they had no case to answer with respect to the murder charge. The prosecution had alleged that Maryam’s family members attempted to destroy evidence that linked her to the murder.

It alleged that upon realizing that an offence of culpable homicide was committed, the other defendants, “did cause evidence of the offence to disappear”.

It said the other defendants had carefully cleaned the blood from the scene of the crime with the intention of screening the 1st defendant, Maryam from legal punishment.

According to the prosecution, the three persons involved in the scrubbing-off of murdered Bilyamin’s blood, by their action, committed an offence punishable under section 167 of the Penal Code Law.

The court however held that Police failed by way of credible evidence, establish a prima-facie case against Maryam’s family members.