Maryam Sanda has approached the Court of Appeal in Abuja to challenge the judgement which sentenced her to death. She filed the appeal three weeks after she was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging by a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court over the death of her husband, Bilyaminu Bello.
In the Notice of Appeal predicated on twenty grounds, Sanda prayed the appellate court to set aside the verdict of the lower court and acquit her. She claimed that the trial judge, Justice Yusuf Halilu, was tainted by bias and prejudices. According to the appellant, this led to the denial of her right to a fair hearing and her consequent conviction based on circumstantial evidence.
Sanda alleged that the judge gave the verdict despite the reasonable doubt that was created by evidence of witnesses, lack of confessional statement, absence of murder weapon, lack of corroboration of evidence by two or more witnesses, and lack of autopsy report to determine the true cause of her husband’s death.
She insisted that the judgment of the trial court was completely “a miscarriage of justice.”
