BREAKING: Supreme Court Nullifies Tinubu’s Pardon, Upholds Death Sentence on Maryam Sanda.

 

The Supreme Court of Nigeria has delivered a major ruling on Friday, overturning the presidential pardon earlier granted to Maryam Sanda and reinstating her death sentence by hanging for the 2017 murder of her husband, Bilyaminu Bello.

Sanda, who was convicted in 2020 by an Abuja High Court for stabbing her husband to death during a domestic dispute, had her sentence reduced to 12 years imprisonment by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in October 2025 on compassionate grounds.

However, in a decisive 4–1 majority judgment, the Supreme Court ruled that the presidential intervention was improper and legally ineffective since Sanda’s appeal was still pending at the time the pardon was issued.

Delivering the lead judgment, Justice Moore Adumein held that the prosecution had successfully proven the charge of culpable homicide beyond reasonable doubt. He affirmed the position of both the trial court and the Court of Appeal, which had earlier upheld the death sentence.

Justice Adumein criticised the presidential pardon, stating:

“It was wrong for the Executive to exercise pardon over a case of culpable homicide while an appeal was ongoing. Such action disrupts the judicial process and undermines the integrity of criminal justice.”

The apex court dismissed all the issues raised by Sanda, describing her appeal as lacking merit.

With Friday’s ruling, the compassionate reduction of her sentence has been nullified, effectively returning her to the status of a death-row inmate.

Sanda is expected to be transferred back to the appropriate correctional facility pending the execution of the judgment.