Eniola Olayemi
Prosecution witness yesterday said Maryam Sanda, accused of killing her husband, Bilyaminu Bello, told the police that the fight between her and the deceased that allegedly led to his death was caused by a nude picture of a lady she found on his phone.
Maryam is being tried for allegedly killing Bello, a nephew of former PDP Chairman, Alhaji Bello Halliru Muhammad. She was docked alongside her brother, Aliyu Sanda; her mother, Maimuna Aliyu and one Sadiya, who were accused of assisting her to conceal the evidence by cleaning the blood of the deceased from the scene of the crime. They pleaded not guilty.
At the resumed hearing yesterday, the witness, Inspector Josephine Onyendo, who testified as the sixth prosecution witness (PW6), told an FCT High Court in Maitama that upon being detailed to investigate the case, her team proceeded to the residence of the deceased.
“On getting to the house, we went inside where we saw a curtain on the ground at upstairs. There was a praying mat on the floor and there was water on the floor,” she said.
She said after returning to the office, Maryam was asked to make her statement and that according to the statement she had been married to Bilyaminu Bello since August 2015.
“She stated that on the 18th November 2017 there was a lady that sent nude pictures to her husband’s phone that later resulted to fight between both of them,” the witness said.
The witness further told the court that Maryam further stated in the statement that during the fight a Shisha pot got broken while they were fighting with the water inside spilling on the ground which made her husband fell down on the broken bottle and got injured.
She added that Maryam concluded that she took her husband to the general hospital at Maitama, where he was confirmed dead.
Onyendo told the court that by the time the case was transferred to the homicide section, the deceased had been buried according to Islamic rites.
She added that during the investigation, a friend to the late Bilyaminu, one Ibrahim that informed the police in his statement that it was Aliyu Sanda, Maimuna Aliyu and Sadiya (the house help) who cleaned the blood of the deceased from the floor.
Under cross-examination by counsel for Maryam, Olusegun Jolaawo, Onyendo told the court that she was not the first officer to visit the scene of the crime, adding that other officers had visited the scene before her team’s visit.
Upon the disclosure by the prosecution counsel, Fidelis Ogbobe, that the prosecution had come to the end of its case against the defendant, Jolaawo informed the court that the defense was going to file a no-case submission.
The trial judge, Justice Yusuf Halilu, thereafter adjourned the matter to February 27.
