Kudirat Abiola’s murder : Al-Mustapha ‘wins’ at Supreme Court

 

The Supreme Court has dismissed the trial of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (rtd), former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late Military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, over the murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola.

Kudirat Abiola was the wife of the late businessman and politician, Chief MKO Abiola, the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election annulled by former President Ibrahim Babangida.

She was killed in Lagos during the nationwide unrest that followed the annulment, at a time when she was actively campaigning for the restoration of the mandate.

A five-member panel of the apex court, presided over by Justice Uwani Aba-Aji, on Thursday dismissed the charges brought against Al-Mustapha by the Lagos State Government.

At the hearing, the state government failed to reopen the trial and neither appeared in court nor filed any process in the matter since initiating the action in 2014.

When the case was mentioned, counsel to Al-Mustapha, Paul Daudu (SAN), told the panel that Lagos State had taken no steps to act on the order granted in 2014 permitting it to reopen the trial.

He noted that the state did not file a notice of appeal as the appellant, adding that this showed a lack of seriousness in pursuing the case.

Daudu explained that when the Supreme Court granted Lagos State permission in 2014 to reopen the matter, the state was given 30 days to file its notice of appeal.

According to him, several years later, the state had still failed to comply with the directive.

He argued that the appellant had abandoned the prosecution and urged the court to dismiss the case in its entirety.
Justice Aba-Aji asked whether Lagos State had been served with a hearing notice, to which the court registrar responded in the affirmative.

In its ruling, the panel unanimously agreed that the state government had lost interest in the matter and effectively abandoned it.

Justice Aba-Aji held that nine years was sufficient time for the appellant to file both a notice of appeal and a brief of argument.

The court also expressed displeasure that the Lagos State Government neither appeared in court nor provided any explanation, despite being served with hearing notices since 2020.

Consequently, the case marked SC/CR/45/2014 was dismissed.

Another appeal filed by the Lagos State governor in the same matter, marked SC/CR/6/2014, was also dismissed on similar grounds.

The Supreme Court had earlier, in 2014, granted Lagos State permission to reopen the case out of time to challenge the July 12, 2013 judgment of the Court of Appeal, which discharged and acquitted Al-Mustapha of the murder charge.

(DAILY TRUST)