By Ishaya Ibrahim
Officials of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS) dragged Maryam Sanda to their waiting vehicle in a racing manner after a High Court handed her the death sentence for killing her husband, Bilyaminu Haliru.
Justice Yusuf Halilu of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court found Maryam guilty of killing her husband, who was the son of former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national chairman, Haliru Mohammed.
The correctional officers who later handcuffed the convict, gripped her both hands and dragged her to their waiting vehicle in a racing manner.
No reason was given for the action of the prison officials. But the presence of many people outside the courtroom with camera phones and other video recording devices may have prompted the hurried manner she was taken out of the courtroom.
Yet, many Nigerians felt it was undignified for the officials to have ruffled her that way even as a convict.
A tweet from the handle @EmordiOnyinye said: “ Even after your last breath, dignity should be accorded to a human body. The fact that she’s sentenced to death is not an excuse to treat her harshly. The Nigerian security agencies and their officers should do better than drag her as they did.”
Another tweet from @WalkerSavvy8 fired: “Nigerian security agencies are always behaving like barbarians. Isn’t that a court room with police everywhere? She isn’t going to run away or disappear. What happened to being civil and calm. Na wa o.”
For @samagoh, the manhandling of the convict was sickening.
“Why do our security personnel behave like junkies? She is already dead now… after the Judge pronouncement. She should be accorded respect before the last respect. This gragra now may take 30 years to execute,” he said.
Maryam was arrested in November 2017 and charged for stabbing her husband with a broken bottle.
Maimuna Aliyu, her mother, Aliyu Sanda, her brother, and Sadiya Aminu, her housemaid were initially charged also for allegedly tampering with evidence.
They were said to have cleaned the blood and other proofs from the crime scene. The charges were later dropped.
Maryam and Bilyamin had obviously had troubled marriage in the two years their marriage lasted.
A witness during the trial, Ibrahim Mohammed, said Maryam had on the fateful day of November 18, 2017, issued many threats to her husband, including to chop off his sex organ if he denied her divorce.
Ibrahim, who said he was with the couple on the fateful day, recalled that Maryam broke a bottle of groundnut on the wall and tried stabbing her husband with it.
“I held her hands and Bilyamin went behind her and collected the broken bottle from her. She said she would not stop until Bilyamin divorced her that night; that either he divorced her or she would cut his private part,” the witness said.
He said he left the couple after he thought he had brokered peace between them. Unknown to him, it was the last time he would see his friend.
The following day, he was at the Maitama Hospital where his friend was lying dead with a hole in his chest and a bite on his stomach.
Justice Halilu said Maryam was guilty of premeditated murder.