Maryam Sanda, wife of Bilyaminu Bello, nephew of former PDP chairman, has denied claims of killing her husband. Maryam made news in November 2017 after she was accused of stabbing Bilyaminu to death while they were fighting in their Abuja apartment.
Maryam who is being tried before the FCT High Court in Maitama, yesterday told the court that she did not kill Bilyaminu, rather he fell down during an argument they were having in their home and a bottle pierced his chest.
Weeping as she gave her testimony, Maryam who was pregnant when the incident happened, told the court that though they had their differences in the course of their two-year marriage, she did not kill her husband. Maryam said on the day of the incident, she used her late husband’s phone to make a call and in the process, discovered a nude picture of a lady on the phone. She said she went downstairs and called the deceased so that they could talk about it. She stated that in the course of discussion which degenerated into an argument, she asked Bilyaminu to divorce her, adding that he held her neck, choking her.
She said the argument continued late into the evening and that around 11pm, she went to take her charger in the living room.
“He pushed me and as I was falling down, I mistakenly broke his Shisha bottle and the water inside spilled on the floor. He pinned me to the ground and I heard our daughter crying. I told him to leave me so that I could attend to her and he loosened up a bit and I struggled to my feet. I did not try to kill my husband. We had an argument; that was all. I never wished my husband to die,” Sanda told the court
She stated that while trying to hold her, the deceased fell down and that she saw her husband holding his chest and saw a broken bottle in his chest which she removed and covered the chest with her scarf. Maryam told the court that she rushed out to call for help and met one Ayuba with whom she took her husband to Abuja Clinic, where he was confirmed dead. She also rushed him to Maitama General Hospital where he was also confirmed dead.
Under cross-examination by the prosecuting counsel, Maryam told the court that she did not break the shisha bottle in anger. She stated that as of the time she drove her husband to the hospital, the broken bottle she removed from his chest and the spilled water from the shisha bottle was on the floor of their living room.
She told the court that from the hospital, she was taken to Maitama police station where she wrote her statement. She said the accounts of the two prosecution witnesses that she threatened to kill her husband was false.
Following the evidence of Sanda, her counsel, Rita Okotie Eboh, informed the court that they were closing their case. The trial judge, Justice Yusuf Halilu, thereafter adjourned the case to November 25th for adoption of final written addresses.