An FCT High Court on Monday sentenced Maryam Sanda, the woman who stabbed her husband to death, Bilyaminu, son of a former national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Haliru Bello, to death by hanging.
Delivering judgment, Justice Yusuf Halilu, convicted Sanda based on the `doctrine of last seen’, saying that the doctrine places a burden of proof on the accused who was the last person to be seen with the deceased.
Halilu held that from the evidence before him, it was irredeemably clear that the accused fatally stabbed the deceased adding that the two extrajudicial statements made by the convict were not disputed.
The evidence of the convict was unreliable and circumstantial evidence is used in the place of eye witness account.
“I am convinced that the defendant stabbed the deceased and therefore guilty of charges against her.
“She is hereby convicted of the murder of her husband as charged,’’ he held.
Halilu in sentencing her held that from the entire circumstances of the case, justice to the society and to the deceased outweighs other elements of justice to the defendant.
