Shortly after he
was slammed behind bars and moved to Kirikiri Prisons, in Lagos the distraught
wife of the dreaded former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late Head of
State, General Sanni Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha visited him bringing
along with her the security chief’s children.
In the party was
seven-year old Fatima, who was a Grade II pupil at the American International
School, Maitama, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
However, the two
parents kept the kids in the dark about the ordeal their father, charged with
the murder of the late Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, wife of the presumed winner of
the voided June 12, 1993 presidential elections, was facing.
In fact,
Al-Mustapha played the happy go-lucky daddy, telling the children he was on a
military course, to prepare them for the reality of his long absence at home.
However, shortly
after returning to Abuja, the kids, especially Fatima, stumbled on the raw
facts through newspaper reports and became crestfallen.
Now a law
graduate, the 24- year old in an interview with Sunday Sun recalls: “My mum
tried so hard to hide it from us. But then we saw it in the newspapers…saw
pictures of him climbing the Black Maria and all that. I confronted her and she
was forced to let out the truth. I was inconsolable”.
With a father
faced with a likely death sentence, Fatima said she cried for days, more so
with sorts of embarrassment coming from school mates and their parents, who
withdrew from associating with the stigmatized Al-Mustapha kids.
She said much as
this pained her. She was more worried about how “Daddy could be bailed out of
the predicament and returned home.”
In her child-like
innocence she took to heart words of one of her sympathetic teachers, who told
her “only a lawyer can get him released”, and swore there and then to be a
lawyer and rescue her father.
That resolve has
been actualized as Fatima is among the successful law students in the Final
Bar examination of the Nigerian Law School Abuja, which results were released
on Wednesday, October 15, 2014. She will be called to the bar next month.
Although her
father has been discharged and acquitted of the charge by the July 12, 2013
judgment of the Court of Appeal, Lagos, without her input, for the lass, who
holds LLB (2011) and LLM (2012) degrees from University of Nicofia, Cyprus and
International School of Maritime Law, Malta, respectively, becoming a lawyer
was a dream fulfilled.
“It was more of a
passion to get daddy back. As a child, I just couldn’t get over seeing his pictures
in Black Maria. I figured how to get him out. But the real encouragement
actually came from one of my teachers who said only a lawyer can get him
released. She explained that lawyers were people who go to court and argue
cases before the judge and that based on the merit of the case, the judge can
set him free. That was why I decided I would be a lawyer”.
Fatima says her
passion to get justice for her father drove and saw her through the course:
“You know when you have a passion for something; you don’t see any hindrances
or difficulty.
Understandably,
she is bitter about Al-Mustapha’s long years of incarceration, describing it as
“gross injustice and a failure of the justice system.”
On his
controversial and protracted trial, she says it is more political than
criminal, stressing: “Everything is political and not based on the merit. And
when you do that, you open the door for people’s rights to be abused.
“When you fail to
obey the rule of law and start creating laws of your own within the existing
laws, then you are setting us up for failure.”
For all that,
however, Fatima says she would not join her father’s defence team to argue his
case which is currently before the Supreme Court after Lagos State appealed the
appellate court’s verdict.
“You know I’m
just budding. Besides, I trust his lawyers to do a good job,” she says.
The young lawyer
describes her experience at law school as “nice and a worthwhile experience,
after being away from home (Nigeria) for long.”
She says it was
unlike when she was growing up when, according to her, “going to school was
difficult, because your erstwhile friends and school mates were told not to
talk to you; and parents withdrew their kids from some activities because we
(Al-Mustapha’s children) were participating. Then you had some people (armed)
following us about.”
On ways to avoid
delay in dispensation of justice, Fatima advises that: “We need to put in the
forefront protection of the fundamental human rights of the accused,” adding:
“If we get that into our judicial officers, we are ready to go.”
Proud dad,
Al-Mustapha in a chat with Sunday Sun says: “I feel a sense of fulfillment and
can only give glory to the Almighty alone, because I’m alive to witness this
day. Those who framed me up and put me in jail had the intention to kill me.
Here is a child brought to me in prison as a toddler turning out to be an
officer of the law, based on her rejection and opposition to my persecution. We
give God the glory.”
Source:
Sun
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