SUMMARY OF MARYAM SANDA v. COMMISSIONER OF POLICE

MARYAM SANDA v. COMMISSIONER OF POLICE:

Facts, and Decision:

This is a case at the court of appeal against the appellant, a woman, who was accused of stabbing her husband to death. The appellant had seen the nude picture of a strange woman on her husband, Biliyaminu Bello’s phone. She became angry, and vented her anger against the husband.

In the presence of her husband’s friend, Ibrahim Mohammad, she grabbed a bottle, and knife and attempted to attack her husband, threatening to cut off his manhood unless he divorced her immediately. Ibrahim Mohammad testified that he collected knifes and bottles from the appellant’s hand about three to four times.

When he left, only the appellant was left in the house with her husband. There was evidence of stab wounds at the lower abdomen of the husband, on his chest and on his neck. The Appellant gave evidence that he fell on broken shards of the shisha bottle which punctured his body, and led to his death.

However, evidence revealed that the wounds were caused by a knife. The court disbelieved the Appellant’s story, and affirmed her conviction, applying the last seen principle, and relying on circumstantial evidence which was cogent, clear, unequivocal, compelling, and pointing irresistibly to the fact that the appellant, and only her could have killed the deceased.

COURT HELD:

The court of Appeal upheld the death sentence of the Trial court