Court rejects fresh bail request of ‘killer wife’

An Abuja federal high court on Wednesday struck out a fresh bail application filed by Maryam Sanda.

Sanda is being tried for allegedly stabbing her husband, Bilyamin Bello, son of former chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to death over allegations of infidelity.

The tragic incident occurred in Abuja on November 19, 2017.

She was arrested and subsequently remanded in Suleja prison.

Joesph Daudu, Sanda’s counsel, had in December prayed the court to grant his client bail over health reasons and the need to attend to her 6-month-old baby.

But Yusuf Halilu, the presiding judge, struck out the application.

On Monday, Daudu, again, asked the court to grant Sanda bail, claiming that his client was three months pregnant.

“My lord, the new fact is that she is three months pregnant and I have done my research,” Daudu told the court.

But James Idachaba, the prosecuting lawyer, prayed the court to reject the application on grounds that it constituted an abuse of court of process, because Sanda failed to withdraw her notice of appeal challenging the December 14 ruling declining her bail.

Daudu argued that the notice of appeal was technically dead since it had not been processed within the time limit allowed by law.

But Idachaba maintained that since there had not been any application filed before the appeal court withdrawing the notice of appeal, it was still valid as of the time of filing the fresh application on January 24.

Halilu ruled in favour of the prosecutor, saying it would amount to toeing “a path of destruction” to grant Sanda bail since the applicant’s notice of appeal against the court was still pending.

“It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for his (Daudu’s) argument to sway this court,” Halilu said.

“The argument has not in anyway swayed me.

“The application is liable to be struck out and it is accordingly struck out.”