Mariam Sanda, Nigerian justice system and the presidential prerogative of mercy.
By Bilal Omeiza
In Nigeria, it’s said that there is no dull moment. When citizens are getting tired of some policies of government and the government feels people are mobilizing against it, the government understood how to engage the members of the public to douse the tension. Example of what we are witnessing in the latest presidential pardon.
When the news came that Mariam Sanda, a lady who killed her husband in 2017 and was sentenced by various courts after being prosecuted was pardoned by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu alongside many others who got sentenced by the court for various offences under the guise presidential prerogacy of mercy.
The gesture of clemency is good,bas they to err is human, but to forgive Godly. Certainly, no in this matter. What came to people’s mind is, in a country where the integrity of justice system is being questioned, justice is mostly denied, a conviction was secured, after painstaking prosecution by the police and Bilyaminu’s family in Mariam Sanda’s case, due to the public interest in how the young Bilyaminu, her husband was murdered in cold blood. No doubt, lots of resources was committed by the government and the family of the deceased to get Mariam Sanda sentenced.
I have to commend the Justices of the FCT High Court and those of the Appeal Court who affirmed the decision of the trial court, by disregarding the pressure and other political interference while trial lasted.
To me and many others, Mariam has enjoyed the enough of mercy while in the prison, since the state have refused to implement the death sentence placed on her by the competent court of jurisdiction. However, I’m aware that the judgment was appealed in Supreme Court.
Instead of waiting for the outcome of the apex court, the government horridly rush to pardon her.
Over the weekend, I was discussing the Monday planned protest led by an activist and founder of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore on continued detection of the leader of Biafra agitator, Nnamdi Kanu who is standing trial by a friend, he told me, if Mariam Sanda and other criminals can be forgiven, Nnamdi Kanu committed lesser crime than some of those on the pardon list and he should be included on the list.
What this means for Nigerian is that, going forward, citizens may choose the option of self-help, since after committing their time and resources to pursue justice, a President could come and free the person that was sentenced.
In the bid to 2019 general election, the past administration of late President Muhammadu Buhari granted similar amnesty to a former Governor of Taraba state, Reverend Jolly Nyame and his counterpart in Plateau state, Joshua Dariye, who were members of his political party that was sentenced by Federal High Court, for offences bordering on corruption and misappropriation of their states resources when they governed their states, after ten years of prosecution.
The attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi had told the news men that the list is undergoing scrutiny and yet to be implemented, as no one has been released from the detention, it’s not in the best interest of the country to free any of those on the list, either alive or posthumously.
The council of state are expected to question some of these decisions and, where necessary demand an amendment to the section of the Constitution which grant the powers to the President to donate amnesty on the “condemned” people as it’s sending bad signal to the society.
