When Mercy Becomes Injustice: The Troubling Pardon of Maryam Sanda – By Qudus Alalafia.
The recent presidential pardon granted to Maryam Sanda, a woman convicted for the murder of her husband, Bilyaminu Bello, is one decision I find deeply troubling and difficult to reconcile with the principles of justice and public confidence in our judicial system.
Let me be clear: I am not against the constitutional prerogative of mercy vested in the President under Section 175 of the 1999 Constitution. However, mercy must never become an instrument of injustice, nor should it erode the sanctity of judicial pronouncements painstakingly achieved through years of rigorous legal proceedings.
Maryam Sanda’s case passed through every tier of Nigeria’s judiciary, each affirming her guilt beyond reasonable doubt. These were not casual proceedings; they consumed precious judicial time, resources, and intellect in the pursuit of truth and justice. To nullify all that through an executive pardon is to reduce the judiciary to a mere academic exercise whose verdicts can be overturned by sentiment.
What is even more unsettling is the legal effect of a state pardon. Under the law, a person who receives such pardon is deemed to have never committed any crime at all. In other words, Maryam Sanda walks home today not as a convicted felon freed by mercy, but as a legally innocent person. That, to me, is an affront to the memory of the deceased, an insult to the judiciary, and a dangerous precedent for the future
Even if compassion were to be extended to her, the commutation of her death sentence to life imprisonment would have been a more balanced and justifiable route that would demonstrate mercy without mocking the justice system. But the outright release of a convicted murderer sends the wrong message, that the weight of justice can be lifted by emotion, influence, or perceived sympathy rather than by equity or the rule of law.
Some have argued that the pardon was justified because she has young children who need her care. But this argument collapses under scrutiny. A woman who could take her husband’s life in cold blood, after several warnings and interventions by the husband’s friends, certainly knew the consequences of her action. She made a conscious decision, and every conscious decision carries responsibility. The emotional appeal of motherhood should not obscure the moral reality of murder..
There are countless inmates across Nigeria, many unjustly convicted, others languishing for years without trial, who are far more deserving of mercy and rehabilitation. If compassion were the motive, the President’s benevolence could have been better directed toward those whose circumstances genuinely cry out for justice and reform.
In the end, this pardon is not a triumph of mercy; it is a betrayal of justice. It undermines the very foundation of our criminal justice system, weakens public trust in judicial integrity, and trivializes the painful process through which guilt was established. True mercy should complement justice, not contradict it.
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