N*de photos caused Maryam Sanda’s fight with slain husband — Witness

A 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.