Al-Mustapha
First child of the late Kudirat Abiola, Lekan Abiola, has expressed disappointment over Friday’s Appeal Court judgment, which upturned the death sentence earlier passed on Major Hamza Al-Mustapha and Lateef Shofolahan, who were accused of masterminding the killing of his mother.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos had earlier on Friday discharged and acquitted the former Chief Security Officer to the late Gen. Sani Abacha (Al-Mustapha) and Shofolahan, an ex-aide to the late Kudirat.
The appellate court had dismissed the judgment of Justice Mojisola Dada of the Lagos High Court, which sentenced both men to death by hanging, after accusing the judge of being “stroked to secure a conviction by all means.”
But the younger Abiola said that he was “disappointed, but not particularly surprised by the judgement.”
“I pray that God will forgive my mother and I know that my mum and dad will definitely get justice; maybe not in Nigeria, but I’m sure that Allah will give them justice where they are.”
He said, “The Appeal Court only completed the work of other courts before it that have played roles in scuttling the family’s quest for justice in this matter. They finished the job, but they weren’t the ones who started it.
“We had seven or so defendants before now with confessions of the roles they played in the death of my mother; there was Mohammed Abacha, Banabas Jabila aka Sgt. Rogers, James Danbaba, Lateef Shofolahan, Rabo Lawal and others. Everybody said the role they played; the one who did the shooting; the one who drove; the one who arranged for the car that was used when they got to Lagos from Abuja; the people in the room when the order to kill my mother was given. All the seven started the case, but the Supreme Court started the whole thing when it said that Mohammed Abacha had no case to answer.”
According to him, the Abiola family would still have been disappointed even if the death sentence had been upheld by the Appeal Court.
He said, “One after the other, the cases were dropped and it was down to the remaining two. Where are the others? The fact that only two of them were convicted shows the rot in the judicial system. Even if the court had upheld the death sentence, we still wouldn’t have got the justice we sought. Already, most of those involved had been freed.”
Reacting to the assertion that military officers cannot be liable for crimes committed while carrying out orders from a superior officer, Abiola said military law also recognised illegality and had made provisions for such scenarios.
He argued that junior military officers get punished abroad for criminal offences carried out under direct order from a superior boss.
He said, “It has been proven that even in the military, you are not bound by law to obey an illegal order. If a human being asks you to do something, you have to ask yourself if it’s a legal order.
“After the World War II, German officials involved in war crimes, who claimed to be following orders before an international tribunal in Nuremberg, were found guilty and hanged.”
Abiola also expressed concern about the general situation in the country, saying that many Nigerians would be silently facing a fate similar to that being faced by his family.
He said, “Only God knows how many Nigerian family members have been killed by the police or the army and could not get justice. If something like that can happen to my family, what about other families that people don’t know anything about?
He, however, said that the Abiola family had accepted the judgment in good fate as Muslims, adding that some credits should go the “high court judge that passed the initial (death) sentence on Al-Mustapha and Shofolahan.”
Also, a younger brother to the late MKO Abiola, Alhaji Mubashiru Abiola, told one of our correspondents that the judgement came to the Abiola family as a “big surprise.”
Although he declined further comment on the judgment, Mubashiru said the family would issue a statement on the issue after a meeting of all members.
Similarly, Kudirat’s daughter, Hafsat Abiola-Costello, in a text message to one of our correspondents on Friday, said the family would not want to make any hasty comment on the appellate court’s decision.
Her text message read, “Hello, the family will release a statement in the next few days. Thanks.”
The judgment of the appellate court came about 14 years after the appellants were first arraigned in 1999, with two others, for the murder of Kudurat, wife of the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief MKO Abiola.
In the two separate but unanimous judgments delivered on Friday, the Justice Amina Augie-led appeal panel discharged and acquitted al-Mustapha and Shofolahan of the murder charges for lack of evidence.
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