By Abiola Olawale
The family of Bilyaminu Ahmed Bello has criticised President Bola Tinubu’s recent pardon of Maryam Sanda, a woman convicted of murder.
Describing the decision as the “worst possible injustice any family could be made to go through,” Bello’s relatives accused the administration of mocking the judicial process and reopening wounds that had only just begun to heal.
The controversy erupted just days after the presidency announced on October 11, 2025, that Sanda, 37, was among 175 convicts granted clemency under Tinubu’s Prerogative of Mercy.
Sanda’s release after serving just six years and eight months at the Suleja Medium Security Custodial Centre has drawn widespread condemnation, particularly from Bello’s family, who described the development as a “blatant disregard for the finality of court rulings upheld by Nigeria’s highest benches.”
This was contained in a statement issued by Dr Bello Mohammed, on behalf of the family.
The statement reads in part: “To have Maryam Sanda walk the face of the earth again, free from any blemish for her heinous crime as if she had merely squashed an ant, is the worst possible injustice any family could be made to go through for a loved one.
“Satisfied that justice had finally been served, the judgment provided some closure of sorts in the circumstance, if ever there could be one. Although the perpetrator had shown no remorse, even for a fleeting moment throughout the saga, the grieving family took solace in the judgments and moved on, having painfully come to terms with the fate that life had thrust upon one of our own.
“This latest turn of events, coming just a few years after the dastardly crime that cruelly cut short Bilyaminu’s life, has, however, expectedly reopened our healing wounds.
“We interpret this decision as primarily driven by the sole motivation for appeasing Maryam’s family members by way of extending mercy to a certified convicted murderer.
“At the same time, it conveniently ignored the corresponding inexorable pain that has now been inflicted on the victim’s grieving family, friends and associates.
“We are compelled to issue this formal statement to humanise Bilyaminu, who is now suddenly being made to appear as if he is just another faceless anonymous individual in the long line of victims of crimes in the country.”
The New Diplomat reports that Sanda was one of those pardoned by Tinubu. She was convicted in 2020 after being found guilty of stabbing her husband, Bilyaminu Bello, to death at their Abuja home on November 19, 2017.
