BREAKING NEWS, Political Briefs

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|  By Anayo Ezugwu  |

AFTER spending fifteen years in detention, an Appeal Court sitting in Lagos on July 12, 2013 discharged and acquitted Hamza Al-Mustapha, chief security officer to the late Sani Abacha, former head of state, of conspiracy and murder of Kudirat Abiola, wife of late Moshood Abiola, undeclared winner of the 1993 Presidential election, who was assassinated in 1996. Justice Amina Augie, who presided over the court, ruled that the Lagos High Court that convicted Al-Mustapha for the murder of Abiola was stroked to secure a conviction by all means.

The court, in a unanimous decision, ruled that there was no direct circumstantial evidence that he conspired with anyone as evidence of prosecution witnesses in that regard were contradictory. Justice Rita Pemu, who read the lead judgment, said that based on facts and evidence before the court, it is certainly not Al-Mustapha who pulled the trigger and murdered Abiola. The court holds that he is liable to be discharged and acquitted.

A Lagos High Court on January 30, 2013, sentenced Al-Mustapha to death for conspiracy to commit murder. But he appealed against the judgment. Justice Mojisola Dada of the Lagos High Court, had found him guilty of the offence, and accordingly convicted and sentenced him to death by hanging. Counsel to the appellants had however, appealed against the death sentence, 24-hours after. In the notice of appeal, the appellants contended that the death sentence handed over by the lower court was unwarranted, unreasonable and a manifest miscarriage of justice.

— Jul. 22, 2013 @ 01:00 GMT

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