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From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
The Supreme Court has dismissed the trial of Major Hamza Al‑Mustapha (rtd), the former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late Military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, in the murder of late 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 that was annulled by former President Ibrahim Babangida.
She was murdered in Lagos during the nationwide crisis that followed the annulment, as well as her persistent struggle to get the annulment reversed by the military.
The trial of Al‑Mustapha in the murder charge brought against him by the Lagos State government was, however, put to rest on Thursday by a five‑man panel of justices of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Uwani Aba‑Aji.
At the proceedings where Lagos State was slated to re‑open the trial, no legal representation was made for the state, and no process had been filed since 2014 when an order to re‑open the case was granted in its favour.
When the matter was called, Paul Daudu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, appeared for Al‑Mustapha and informed the justices that Lagos had not taken any step to implement the order granted it in 2014 to re‑open the trial.
He said that not even a notice of appeal was filed by Lagos as the appellant to demonstrate its seriousness to prosecute the case.
The senior lawyer informed the apex court that, in 2014, when the order to re‑open the trial was granted, Lagos was issued a 30‑day ultimatum to file its notice of appeal.
Daudu explained that more than nine years after, nothing was done to comply with the order.
He therefore urged the court to hold that the appellant had abandoned the case and that it should be dismissed in its entirety.
Justice Uwani Aba‑Aji, who presided over the matter, sought to know if Lagos was served with hearing notice, a question that was answered in the affirmative by the registrar of the court.
In a brief ruling, the Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, agreed that Lagos had lost interest in the matter and consequently abandoned it.
Justice Aba‑Aji held that nine years was long enough for the appellant to have filed its notice of appeal and brief of argument in the matter.
Besides, the court expressed disgust that no legal representation was made by the state government while no information was made available to the court and the respondent, despite Lagos being served with hearing notice since 2020.
Consequently, the matter marked SC/CR/45/2014 was dismissed.
Another matter by the Lagos governor marked SC/CR/6/2014 on the same trial was also dismissed on the same ground.
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The Supreme Court had, in 2014, in a ruling on the application by Lagos State for permission to re‑open the case out of time, granted the request for Lagos to challenge the Court of Appeal decision of July 12, 2013 that discharged and acquitted Al‑Mustapha from the murder case.
The then Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen, in the ruling of a panel of seven justices, ordered Lagos State to file its notice of appeal within 30 days.
The decision of Justice Onnoghen on the Lagos application, argued by Osunsanya Oluwayemisi, a Senior State Counsel in the Lagos Ministry of Justice, followed the consent of Al‑Mustapha’s lawyer, Mr Joseph Daudu (SAN), not to oppose the application.
The acting CJN had said that, by the decision of the apex court, the time for Lagos to appeal against the findings of the Court of Appeal on the high‑profile murder case was extended from July 12, 2013, when the Court of Appeal judgment was delivered, till January 7, 2014.
By the permission granted in 2014, the coast became clear for Lagos to challenge the not‑guilty verdict granted in favour of the military officer by the Court of Appeal in 2013.
In the 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 permission of the court to allow it to challenge the Court of Appeal findings of Justices Amina Adamu Augie, Rita Nosakhare Pemu and Fatimo Omoro Akinbami on grounds of miscarriage of justice in the matter.
The state had, in the application, prayed the apex court to allow it to exercise its constitutional right to test the validity and correctness of the decision of the Court of Appeal.
It claimed that it wanted to raise its grounds of appeal on arguable legal and factual issues, especially the question of whether there was any direct or circumstantial evidence establishing the guilt placed on Al‑Mustapha in the murder case.
It had 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 recommend that an appeal could be filed and sustained.
The Lagos State Government said that it would ask the Supreme Court to set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal which, on July 12, 2013, discharged and acquitted Major Hamza Al‑Mustapha in the murder case of late Alhaja Kudirat Abiola.
In place of the Court of Appeal decision, the state government said that it would plead with the apex court to uphold and restore the death sentence by hanging placed on the former CSO to the former dictator and late Head of State, General Sani 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 a two‑count criminal charge of conspiracy to commit murder and the murder of late Alhaja Kudirat Abiola 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, which Al‑Mustapha approached on April 27, 2012 for review of the trial and conviction, the three‑member appellate panel, in a unanimous judgment of July 12, 2013, voided the decision of the High Court, set it aside and discharged and acquitted the accused on the ground that the evidence against them was not strong enough to warrant the death sentence.
