The family of the late Bilyaminu Bello has kicked against the presidential pardon given to his wife, Maryam Sanda, who was sentenced to death for his murder.
In a statement the family issued on Monday, they described the pardon of Maryam as “the worst possible injustice any family could be made to go through.”
The family’s spokesperson, Dr Bello Mohammed, said President Bola Tinubu’s decision had reopened painful wounds that had barely healed.
Dr Mohammed said releasing Maryam to “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 family disputed the argument in a presidential statement, claiming that those pardoned had shown remorse.
They insisted that Maryam did not show any iota of remorse throughout her trial and conviction by the FCT High Court on January 27, 2020, for the premeditated and cold-blooded murder of her husband.
The family recalled how the case progressed to the Court of Appeal, and the decision of the lower court was upheld on December 4, 2020.
They said the accused’s family took the case to the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court, which also, on October 27, 2023, upheld the decision, finally serving justice and giving the family some closure.
Dr Mohammed said that although the perpetrator had shown no remorse, even for a fleeting moment throughout the saga, they took solace in the judgments, which dispensed appropriate sanction for the crime.
He said the family moved on, having painfully come to terms with the fate that life had thrust upon one of their own.
Dr Mohammed lamented that the latest turn of events had “expectedly reopened our healing wounds.”
The family of the late Bilyaminu expressed disappointment that the Federal Government made a mockery of the gravity of the crime and the painstaking judicial process by granting clemency to Sanda, allegedly following “appeals from her family.”
The family said the decision to extend mercy to a certified convicted murderer was primarily driven by the desire to appease Maryam’s family members.
They lamented that the decision conveniently ignored the corresponding inexorable pain that has now been inflicted on the victim’s grieving family, friends and associates.
Bilyaminu’s family further accused the government of undermining the judicial process, adding that the decision had dehumanised their son and reduced him to a mere statistic.
They said the statement was issued to humanise Bilyaminu, in defiance of the government’s attempt to reduce him to another faceless anonymous individual in the long line of victims of crimes in the country.
The family said they took solace in the fact that ultimate justice resides with God, who will pay back to each one according to what he or she has done.
How Maryam Sanda killed her husband
Bilyaminu Bello, son of former PDP Chairman, Haliru Bello, met his untimely death at the hands of his wife, Maryam, on Sunday, November 19th, 2017.
Maryam, a nursing mother of an eight-month-old daughter at the time, found a text message on Bilyaminu’s phone from someone she presumed was his girlfriend.
She confronted her husband and ended up stabbing him to death.
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