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Sometimes, a pardon meant to heal ends up ripping the scab off a wound that was barely closed. That’s what the family of Bilyaminu Bello say they now feel—after President Bola Tinubu granted clemency to Maryam Sanda, his convicted killer.
In a statement released this week, Dr. Bello Mohammed, speaking for the family, called the pardon “the worst possible injustice any family could be made to go through.” They say it reopens raw pain, turning a chapter they had tried to bury back into a headline.
The tragedy dates back to November 19, 2017, when Maryam Sanda was found guilty of stabbing her husband, Bilyaminu Bello, in their Abuja home. The crime was ruled as premeditated murder.
On January 27, 2020, the FCT High Court sentenced her to death by hanging. On appeal, both the Court of Appeal (December 4, 2020) and the Supreme Court (October 27, 2023) affirmed that judgment. The courts left little doubt: the process was deliberate, and the verdict final.
It was inside that certainty, the family says, they found a semblance of closure.
Then came the shock. As part of a batch of 175 inmates pardoned under the Presidential Prerogative of Mercy, Sanda was included. The government explained that the mercy extended partly because of her “good conduct, remorse, and consideration as a mother of two young children.”
For many, including some commentators in the media and on social platforms, the pardon reflects compassion and second chances. For the Bello family, it feels like erasure.
“To have Maryam Sanda walk the face of the earth again, free from any blemish … is the worst possible injustice any family could be made to go through.”
They recall how the courts’ judgments gave them some solace—a fragile sense that justice had spoken. But the pardon, they say, ignored that entire process. The family accuses the government of undermining the judiciary and discounting their grief.
Their statement also points out that the grounds for Sanda’s release— “appeals from her family”—effectively made her victims invisible. “We are compelled to … humanize Bilyaminu,” they insist.
They further claim that Sanda deprived her children of their father’s care and love, and now those very children are used as arguments for her clemency.
In short: what was meant to be mercy now feels like betrayal.
Media publications have echoed this outrage. The Punch ran the family’s condemnation under headlines like “Slain husband’s family slams Tinubu’s pardon for Maryam Sanda.” The Guardian also covered widespread public reaction, noting heated debates across social media about justice, mercy, and the balance between them.
On X (formerly Twitter) and in comment threads, Nigerians have expressed dismay. Some say the pardon cheapens the value of a life lost; others warn it sets a dangerous precedent where victims’ voices can be drowned by appeals.
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