Maryam Sanda has approached the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, praying it to set aside the death sentence passed by an FCT High Court for killing her husband, Bilyaminu Bello.
She predicated her appeal on 20 grounds, asking the appellate court to acquit her of the murder conviction.
Sanda was sentenced to death by hanging three weeks ago by Justice Yusuf Halilu.
In the appeal, she said the trial judge was biased against her and openly showed prejudices, which led to the denial of her right to fair hearing.
She argued that her conviction was based on circumstantial evidence which was not proved beyond reasonable doubt.
She said the 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, made her conviction a nullity.
In the notice of appeal filed by her counsel, Rickey Tarfa (SAN), Maryam Sanda said the judgment of the trial court was completely “a miscarriage of justice”.
She pointed to the failure of the trial judge to rule, one way or the other, on her preliminary objection, challenging the charge preferred against her and the jurisdiction of the court as evidence of bias and a denial of her right to fair hearing as constitutionally guaranteed.
She submitted that: “The honourable trial judge erred in law when having taken arguments on the appellant’s preliminary objection to the validity of the charge on the March 19, 2018, failed to rule on it at the conclusion of trial or at any other time.
“The trial judge exhibited bias against the defendant in not ruling one way or the other on the said motion challenging his jurisdiction to entertain the charge” and “therefore fundamentally breached the right to fair hearing of the defendant.”
She submitted that: “The circumstantial evidence which the trial court relied upon in its application of the last seen doctrine does not lead to the conclusion that the defendant is responsible for the death of the deceased”.
She thus prayed the Appeal Court to allow her appeal, set aside her conviction and sentence imposed by Justice Halilu and acquit her of the murder charge.
