Al-Mustapha discharged and acquitted by Lagos Court of Appeal

The former Chief Security Officer to late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, was today discharged and acquitted by the Court of Appeal in Lagos for the murder of Kudirat Abiola.

The judgment overturns that of the Lagos High Court which convicted and sentenced the retired Major in January 2012 and sentenced him to death by hanging. The Court of Appeal, in their ruling, said there was not enough evidence to incriminate Al-Mustapha in the murder of Late Mrs Abiola.

Chief  MKO Abiola's wife was shot dead on June 4, 1996, on what was alleged to be the orders of Al-Mustapha.

Mixed reactions, Saturday, trailed the acquittal of late General Sani Abacha’s Chief Security Officer (CSO), Major Hamza Al Mustapha, and Alhaji Lateef Shofolahan of the murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola in Lagos.

Lawyers also considered the legal implication of the Friday’s Judgment, saying that Lagos State has three months (90 days) within which to appeal the decision.

 While the Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND) expressed “shock and disappointment” over the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, immediate past Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Anthony Agbo, actually congratulated Al Mustapha on his release from detention.

The appeal court, on Friday, overturned the judgment of the High Court of Lagos State, which had convicted Al Mustapha and Shofolahan, sentencing them to death by hanging.   

 Relying on the judgment issued by Hon. Justice Mojisola Dada of the High Court of Lagos State, Igbosere Lagos, on January 30, 2012, which found both men guilty of the offences of conspiracy to murder Alhaja Abiola, contrary to 324 and 319 of the Criminal Code of Lagos State, KIND, in a statement issued by its Executive Director, Amy Oyekunle, faulted the decision of the Appeal Court.

  The statement titled: “Is This The Face of Justice in Nigeria,?” argued that “the finding and the reasoning of the High Court Judge was that the evidence of Barnabas Jabila (a.k.a Sgt. Rogers) and that of Muhammed Abdul (a.k.a Katako), the two prosecution witnesses, was credible, reliable, sufficient and believable, and that the court could safely convict Major Hamza Al Mustpaha and Alhaji Lateef Shofolahan on that evidence, regardless of the fact that during cross examination and re-examination, the two witnesses retracted their earlier given testimony and recanted. The Court found that retraction as an after-thought.”

   According to KIND: “Barnabas Jabila and Muhammed Abdul had, at the early stage of the trial testified that they were directed to murder Alhaja Abiola, by Major Al Mustapha; that they were given information on her movements by Alhaji Sofolahan; and that they, respectively, shot and killed Alhaji Kudirat Abiola and drove the Peugeot 504 Car, which they used in trailing her car and bolting away, after killing her at the Cargo Vision Area of the Lagos end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, by the Toll Gate.

    “The court found that it was cogently, compellingly and irresistibly proved beyond reasonable doubt by the prosecution that Major Al Mustapha was the person who procured Barnabas Jabila, the ‘Force striker’, to eliminate Alhaja Abiola by direct instruction, handing over of the murder weapon, the UZI SMG with 9mm rounds with which she was assassinated in broad daylight on the streets of Lagos and who provided ‘the logistics’ for their movement from Abuja to Lagos by flight, their accommodation at his Lagos official residence at Dodan Barracks and linked them up with their contact person and facilitator, Alhaji Lateef Shofolahan,” the statement said.

     KIND noted that Friday’s judgment of Hon. Justice Amina A. Augie (the Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeal’s Panel), Hon. Justice Rita N. Pemu, and Hon. Justice Fatima O. Akinbami, reversing the judgment of Hon. Justice Mojisola Dada, has now discarded that Court’s findings and rejected the Court’s reasoning.

  According to the statement, KIND intends to obtain the judgment and commission a team of legal experts to study it in detail, with a view to determining whether a civil action is advisable at this point. “ KIND respectfully acknowledges but vehemently disagrees with the Judgment of the Court of Appeal.

     

  The group also noted that the Nigerian Judiciary was unable to resolve the issue of who murdered, in December 2002, Chief Bola Ige, a sitting Attorney General of the Federation and the husband of the then serving Justice of the Court of Appeal, Late Justice Atinuke Omobonike Ige. “Is it that the Nigerian Judiciary is incapable of resolving cases of political murders and assassinations, or that the Nigerian state lacks the competence, capability or will to prosecute cases of political murders?” KIND queried.

      But, in a statement made available to journalists in Abakaliki, at the weekend, Agbo contended that the acquittal of Al Mustapha should bring to a close all recollections about the dark days of Nigeria’s past political history, noting that the former Chief Security Officer to late Head of State, General Abacha, was merely doing his job as a loyal officer.

    While calling for an end to the culture of hate mongering that stirs up strife in the country, Agbo added: “I wish to congratulate Colonel Hamza Al Mustapha and his immediate family on his recent freedom from the protracted trial in the Courts.

   “The young man has suffered as if he was the sole catalyst of the June 12 saga. There could be other people that could have done much more deeds than he did but they did not pass through what he suffered in the last 15 years. He was only a loyal servant to a head of state of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I congratulate him.”

   Agbo said the central issue that prompted his message is that “the events of that era should be put behind us as a nation; let us embrace full complete and comprehensive reconciliation and have mutual love for one another.”

    He expressed the hope that Al Mustapha’s freedom should open up “the great door for national healing and put behind the events of our dark era” even as he thanked God for sparing the life of the soldier so that he could live to help in fashioning a better and secure Nigeria through his varied experiences.

     Former president of the NBA, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, said the State could appeal the decision within 90 days if they are not satisfied with the judgment. - Guardian

It is not yet uhuru for Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, former Chief Security Officer, CSO, to late Head of State, Gen Sani Abacha, over his acquittal by the appellate court as the Lagos State government Tuesday disclosed that it has filed an appeal to challenge the lower court's decision that set free the former CSO and Alhaji Lateef Shofolahan over the murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola.

This was contained in a statement by the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Ade Ipaye while briefing journalists at his ministry's monthly media chart on Law and Order in the state.

The Attorney General who refused to disclose the grounds, on which the state was challenging the judgment of the appeal court, said the state took the decision after one month of thorough evaluation of the judgment and found out "there are enough and very good grounds for appeal."

AFTER studied silence on the acquittal of former Chief Security Officer under the late General Sani Abacha’s government, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, the Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, Saturday, broke silence on the state’s decision to appeal the ruling, saying the it places the highest premium on the sanctity of human life, fair play and justice.

   Fashola spoke during the commemoration of his 2,300 days in office at the Lagos Television Ground.

   He justified the state’s move, saying the government acted on agitations by the people.

   “The first report is in respect of the verdict of acquittal of Major Al-Mustapha for charges of conspiracy and murder by the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal, which has generated some mixed reactions.

   “Because our constitution permits further appeal to the Supreme Court, and because we place the highest premium on every human life and because the families of the victims deserve every right to agitate the matter to the final court, just as the accused would have been entitled, your government has appealed on behalf of the people to the Supreme Court,” he said.

   In a reaction to one of the questions asked him, Fashola bemoaned how the police allegedly denied River State governor, Rotimi Amaechi access to the Rivers State government lodge, describing the action as lacking in common sense.