The presidential pardon of Bilyaminu Bello’s wife, Maryam Sanda, who was found guilty and given the death penalty for his murder, has been denounced by his family.
“The worst possible injustice any family could be made to go through” is how they characterized the transfer.
President Bola Tinubu’s decision to include Sanda among the 175 prisoners recently pardoned under the Prerogative of Mercy principle, according to a statement released on Monday by Dr. Bello Mohammed on behalf of the family, has reopened deep wounds that had just begun to heal.
“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 partly read.
The family noted that Sanda, who was convicted by the FCT High Court on January 27, 2020, for the premeditated and cold-blooded murder of her husband, had shown “no remorse even for a fleeting moment throughout the saga.”
They recalled that the court’s judgment was upheld by the Court of Appeal on December 4, 2020, and later affirmed by the Supreme Court on October 27, 2023, saying the family had found some closure after justice was served.
“Satisfied that justice had finally been served, the judgment provided some closure of sorts in the circumstance, if ever there could be one. 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.
This latest turn of events, coming just a few years after the dastardly crime that cruelly cut short Bilyaminu’s life, has, however, expectedly reopened our healing wounds.”
The family expressed deep disappointment that, despite the gravity of the crime and the painstaking judicial process, the Federal Government chose to extend clemency to Sanda, allegedly following “appeals from her family.”
“We interpret this decision as primarily driven by the sole motivation for appeasing Maryam’s family members by way of extending mercy to a certified convicted murderer.
