S/Court okays appeal after 42 months acquittal
By Vivian Okejeme
Abuja
The Supreme Court, yesterday, granted Lagos state government an order permitting it to re-open the murder case of late Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, against Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (rtd), former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late military Head of State, General Sani Abacha.
Kudirat was the wife of the late businessman, Chief MKO Abiola, the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 Presidential Election annulled by former Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida.
In a brief ruling on the application by the Lagos state government for permission to re-open the case out of time, the apex court granted the request for LASG to challenge the Court of Appeal’s decision of July 12, 2013 that discharged and acquitted Al-Mustapha of the murder case.
In the ruling, the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen, who led the panel of seven Justices, ordered Lagos state to file its notice of appeal within 30 days.
Justice Onnoghen made the decision based on the fact that counsel to Al-Mustapha, Mr. Joseph B. Daudu, SAN, did not oppose the Lagos application argued by Osunsanya Oluwayemisi, a Senior State Counsel in the Lagos Ministry of Justice.
The acting CJN said, by the decision of the apex court, the time for Lagos to appeal against the findings of the Court of Appeal on the murder case has been extended from July 12, 2013 when the Appeal Court judgment was delivered till yesterday.
This ruling cleared the coast for Lagos to challenge the no guilty verdict granted in favour of the ex military officer by the Court of Appeal almost four years ago.
In the new move to re-open the case, the Lagos state government had sought to file a notice of appeal out of time at the Supreme Court, asking for the apex court’s permission to allow it challenge the Appeal Court’s ruling of Justices Amina Adamu Augie, Rita Nosakhare Pemu and Fatimo Omoro Akinbami on ground of miscarriage of justice in the matter.
In the application, the state prayed the apex court to allow it exercise its constitutional right to test the validity and correctness of the decision of the Appeal Court.
It further claimed that it wants to raise its ground of appeal on arguable legal and factual issues, especially, the question of whether there is any direct or circumstantial evidence establishing the guilt passed on Al-Mustapha in the murder case.
It justified its lateness in filing the appeal on the ground that it set up two legal teams to review the circumstances of the case and the verdict of the Court of Appeal.
The government said that it took a long time for the two legal teams to present their findings and recommended that an appeal case can be filed and sustained.
The Lagos State Government said it will ask the Supreme Court to set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which on July 12, 2013 discharged and acquitted Al-Mustapha, in the murder case.
In place of the appellate court’s decision, the state government said it will plead with the apex court to uphold and restore the death sentence by hanging placed on the former CSO to late Abacha by a Lagos High Court on January 30, 2012.
Al-Mustapha, Mohammed Abacha and one Lateef Shofolahan were arraigned before a Lagos High Court on two-count criminal charge of conspiracy to commit murder and murder of the late Abiola’s wife on June 4, 1996 in Lagos State.
In the judgment of the High Court delivered on January 30, 2012 by Justice Moji Dada, the accused persons were found culpable as charged and sentenced to death by hanging.
However, at the Court of Appeal approached by Al-Mustapha on April 27, 2012 for the review of the trial and the conviction, the 3-member appellate court Justices, in a unanimous judgment of July 12, 2013, voided the decision of the High Court, set it aside, discharged and acquitted the accused on the ground that the evidence against them was not strong enough to warrant the death sentence.
