KUDIRAT: MY CONVICTION POLITICALLY MOTIVATED – AL-MUSTAPHA

Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, told the Court of Appeal in Lagos on Monday that the death sentence passed on him over the murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola was politically motivated, as there was no evidence which directly linked him to the commission of the crime.

Al-Mustapha was sentenced to death by hanging by Justice Mojisola Dada of the Lagos High Court sitting in Igbosere on January 30, 2012 for masterminding the killing of Kudirat, wife of the winner of June 12, 1993 Presidential election, late Moshood Abiola.

The former CSO, who is still a serving major in the Nigerian Army, was sentenced to death by hanging alongside Lateef Shofolahan, a former Personal Assistant to the late Kudirat.

But Al-Mustapha, who spoke in court through his lawyer, Joseph Daudu (SAN), argued that the lower court erred in law in basing its judgment on the testimonies of the first and second prosecution witnesses, as the testimonies were inconclusive and contradictory.

“The testimonies of PW1 and 2 were inconclusive and contradictory.

“The court drew inferences from these contradictory statements, to establish the guilty of the appellants (Al-Mustapha and Shofolahan).

“It is my submission that those inferences, upon which the court based its judgment, are merely political evidence formulated by the respondent (Lagos State Government), and which the trial court ought not to have considered.

“I therefore urge the court to allow this appeal, and quash the judgment of the lower court,” Daudu submitted.

Counsel to Shofolahan, Olalekan Ojo, also aligned with the submission of Daudu.

But counsel to Lagos State, Lawal Pedro (SAN), urged the court to dismiss the appeal and uphold the judgment of the lower court.

Pedro, who is the Solicitor General of the state, argued that apart from the evidences of PW1 and 2, there were other evidences from the defendants themselves, which support the counts of conspiracy and murder.

He, therefore, urged the court to dismiss the appeal for lack of merit.

After entertaining arguments from the lawyers, presiding judge, Justice Amina Augie, reserved judgment, and disclosed that a date will be communicated to parties.

The convicts were arraigned in October 1999 on a four-count charge bordering on conspiracy and their involvement in the 1996 murder of the deceased along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

Justice Dada had found them guilty of the offence, and accordingly convicted and sentenced them to death by hanging.

Dissatisfied, the appellants appealed the verdict, and contended in their notice of appeal that the death sentence handed by the lower court was unwarranted, unreasonable and a manifest miscarriage of justice.

They argued that the trial judge erred in law by arriving at the conclusion that they conspired to kill Kudirat on June 4, 1996.

The appellants further faulted the judge’s treatment of the contradictory statements of Barnabas Jabila (aka Sgt. Rogers) and Mohmamed Abdul.

They also faulted the court’s reliance on the testimony of Dr. Ore Falomo on the bullet extracted from late Kudirat.

Source: Daily Independent