…discharges her mother, brother, housemaid
An FCT High Court in Maitama has dismissed a no-case submission made by Maryam Sanda, who was accused of killing her husband, Bilyaminu Bello, and ordered her to enter her defence.
Maryam is being tried before the court for allegedly killing Bello, her husband, who was a nephew of former PDP Chairman, Alhaji Bello Halliru Muhammad.
Maryam was docked alongside her mother, Maimuna Aliyu, a former Executive Director of Aso Savings and Loans; her brother, Aliyu Sanda and her housemaid, Sadiya Aminu, who were charged with assisting her to conceal the evidence by cleaning the blood of the deceased from the scene of the crime.
They pleaded not guilty.
They all filed no-case submissions after the police had called six witnesses to corroborate the charge.
Ruling on the submissions yesterday, the trial judge, Justice Yusuf Halilu held that for conviction to be secured in a culpable homicide charge, three ingredients of the offence must be proven. They are: that death took place; that the death was caused by the accused person and that the accused knew that death will be the probable result of the act which led to the death.
He further held that “from the evidence of all the prosecution witnesses, a thick cloud has been formed by the prosecution making it important to call the other side (Maryam) to make her case.
“The submission of no-case to answer by Maryam Sanda, the first defendant, is overruled. I call on the first defendant to enter her defence,” the judge held.
However, the court upheld the submission filed by the three other defendants and discharged and acquitted them of the offence levelled against them by the police.
The judge held that “the police, either by omission or commission, have clearly not done well in tying Maimuna, Aliyu and Sadiya, to the offence of screening.
“The no-case submission of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th defendants is hereby upheld and they are hereby discharged and acquitted.”
Earlier while going through the evidence before the court, the court noted, among others, the part of evidence of the first prosecution witness, Ibrahim Mohammed, which related to the charge against Maimuna, Aliyu and Sadiya.
Daily Trust recalls that Mohammed, a businessman and friend of the deceased had told the court that while going to the police station from the hospital where Bilyaminu was confirmed dead, Maryam’s mother and brother (Maimuna and Aliyu) with a policeman in their car diverted to the couple’s house.
He had said that one Usman Aliyu told him that they should follow them to the house to see what was happening there, adding that Maimuna and Aliyu went upstairs, while the policeman was in front of the car.
Meanwhile, the court has fixed May 6 for definite defence and ordered that the trial shall be on a day-to-day basis unless otherwise decided by the court.
Daily Trust reports that the FCT Police Command had accused Maryam Sanda of stabbing her husband “on the chest and other parts of the body with a knife and other dangerous weapons which eventually led to his death.”
The alleged offence was committed in November 2017.
•Sourced from Daily Trust
