The Supreme Court on Friday, December 12, 2025, voided the presidential clemency earlier extended to Maryam Sanda and reinstated the death sentence imposed on her for the killing of her husband, Bilyaminu Bello.
In a four-to-one decision, the apex court ruled that the executive action reducing her death sentence to a 12-year jail term could not stand against the final judicial orders already affirmed by the Court of Appeal.
Sanda was convicted on January 27, 2020, by an Abuja High Court after being found guilty of stabbing Bello to death during a domestic dispute in 2017.
The High Court sentenced her to death by hanging, and the Court of Appeal upheld the verdict.
Her inclusion in a presidential clemency exercise in October 2025, which reviewed her punishment to a 12-year sentence, triggered national outrage and renewed debate over the limits of executive mercy in homicide cases.
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In its ruling, the Supreme Court held that the clemency was improperly granted in a matter where the conviction had passed through full judicial scrutiny.
The court dismissed Sanda’s appeal and restored the original death sentence.
With this decision, the death penalty against Sanda now stands, unless future constitutional or judicial interventions arise.