President Bola Tinubu has revoked the clemency granted to Maryam Sanda, a convict who was sentenced to death for killing her husband in 2017.

However, following widespread public outrage, the list was withdrawn for review. The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, who chaired the committee that recommended clemency for the convicts, announced that the list would undergo further scrutiny.

In a revised version released on Wednesday, Maryam Sanda’s name appeared under the category of “reduced terms of imprisonment.”

With her sentence now commuted to 12 years, Sanda is expected to serve about five more years, having already spent seven years in custody.

Her conviction for the culpable homicide of her husband whom she fatally stabbed during a domestic altercation in their Abuja residence remains one of Nigeria’s most widely followed cases of domestic violence and spousal murder.
Sanda was brought before an FCT High Court, where she consistently pleaded not guilty throughout the proceedings.
Following a lengthy and widely publicized trial, Justice Yusuf Halilu, in January 2020, convicted her of murdering her husband and sentenced her to death by hanging. She had been held at the Suleja Medium Security Custodial Centre for six years and eight months.

DAILY TRUST