By Kingston Magare 14.10.2025
President Bola Tinubu’s pardoning of Maryam Sanda who was condemned to death for killing her husband Bilyaminu Ahmed Bello has reopened old wounds, the family of the murder victim has cried out.
Maryam Sanda, 37, was convicted of killing her husband in 2017 by repeatedly stabbing him with a kitchen knife while he slept, and she was sentenced to death by hanging by High Court sitting in Abuja in 2020.
A Supreme Court hearing confirmed the death sentence in 2023, but only after six years behind bars at the Suleja Medium Security Custodial Centre, Maryam Sanda was made to walk free after being included in the list of 157 people pardoned by the President last week.
The Bilyaminu Ahmed Bello family said in a statement signed by Dr. Bello Haliru Mohammed (Dangaladiman Gwandu) that the clemency granted their estranged daughter-in-law was a grave injustice and a “cruel reopening of healing wounds.”
“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. 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 alleged grounds for Maryam Sanda’s release were predicated on appeals from her family, amongst other considerations. It is pertinent to stress that Bilyaminu was also our cherished family member who was profoundly loved and deeply mourned by his teeming relations, friends and close associates following the unfortunate incident that resulted in his gruesome murder eight years ago. Maryam, let’s not forget, had earlier on denied the same children now used to elicit sympathy and secure her release, the opportunity to know what a father’s love and care means.
“Bilyaminu’s family is deeply hurt by this latest development, which we interpret as primarily driven by the sole motivation for appeasing Maryam’s family members by way of extending mercy to a certified convicted murderer, while at the same time overlooking or conveniently ignoring the corresponding inexorable pain that has now been inflicted on the victim’s teeming grieving family members, friends and associates arising from the action,” the statement added.
Maryam Sanda and her husband.