Nigeria’s Supreme Court has set aside the presidential pardon granted by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to Maryam Sanda, the Abuja woman convicted of killing her husband, Bilyaminu Bello, during a domestic dispute.
In 2020, the Federal Capital Territory High Court sentenced Sanda to death by hanging, a verdict later upheld by the Court of Appeal in Abuja. President Tinubu had subsequently commuted the sentence to 12 years’ imprisonment on compassionate grounds.
However, in a narrow 4–1 judgment delivered on December 12, 2025, the Supreme Court restored the initial death sentence. The apex court dismissed Sanda’s final appeal, ruling that it lacked merit and failed to undermine the findings of the lower courts.
Reading the lead judgment, Justice Moore Adumein held that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt, establishing that Sanda unlawfully caused the death of her husband. He described the presidential pardon as an inappropriate exercise of executive power, particularly because the clemency was issued while the appeal process in a homicide case was still ongoing.
One justice dissented, but details of the minority opinion were not disclosed in the judgment.
