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 the late politician, 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 and in the course of her persistent struggle to have the annulment reversed by the military.
The trial of Al-Mustapha in the murder charge brought against him by the Lagos State government was put to rest on Thursday by a five-member 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 appeared, and no process had been filed since 2014, when an order to re-open the case was granted in its favour.
Paul Daudu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) representing Al-Mustapha, informed the Justices that Lagos State had not taken any steps to implement the 2014 order to reopen the trial.
He said that not even a notice of appeal had been filed by Lagos as the appellant to demonstrate its seriousness in prosecuting the trial.
Daudu noted that when the order to reopen the trial was granted in 2014, Lagos State was issued a 30-day ultimatum to file its notice of appeal.
He explained that more than 11 years later, nothing had been done to comply with the order.
He therefore urged the Court to hold that the appellant had abandoned the case and should have it dismissed in its entirety.
Justice Uwani Aba-Aji, who presided over the matter, sought to know if Lagos had been served with the hearing notice, a question 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 had consequently abandoned it.
Justice Aba-Aji held that nine years was long enough for the appellant to have filed a notice of appeal and the brief of appeal.
The Court also expressed disapproval that no legal representation had been made by the state government, while no information was provided to the Court or the respondent, despite being served with the 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.
The Supreme Court had in 2014, in a ruling on Lagos State’s application for permission to re-open the case out of time, granted the request to challenge the Court of Appeal decision of July 12, 2013, which discharged and acquitted Al-Mustapha in the murder case.
The then Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen, in a ruling of a seven-member panel, ordered Lagos State to file its notice of appeal within 30 days.
The decision followed the consent of Al-Mustapha’s lawyer, Mr. Joseph Daudu SAN, not to oppose the application, which was argued by Osunsanya Oluwayemisi, a Senior State Counsel in the Lagos Ministry of Justice.
The Acting CJN had said that by the decision of the apex court, the time for Lagos to appeal against the Court of Appeal’s findings on the high-profile murder case had been extended from July 12, 2013, when the Court of Appeal judgment was delivered, until January 7, 2014.
By the permission granted in 2014, Lagos was cleared to challenge the not-guilty verdict granted in favour of the military officer by the Court of Appeal in 2013.
In the attempt to re-open the case, Lagos State had sought to file a notice of appeal out of time at the Supreme Court, asking for permission to challenge the Court of Appeal’s findings by Justices Amina Adamu Augie, Rita Nosakhare Pemu, and Fatimo Omoro Akinbami, on the grounds of miscarriage of justice.
The state had prayed the apex court to allow it to exercise its constitutional right to test the validity and correctness of the Court of Appeal decision.
It argued that it wanted to raise grounds of appeal on arguable legal and factual issues, especially regarding whether there was any direct or circumstantial evidence establishing Al-Mustapha’s guilt in the murder case.
Lagos State explained that the delay in filing the appeal was due to setting up two legal teams to review the circumstances of the case and the Court of Appeal verdict.
The government said it took time for the two legal teams to present their findings and recommend that an appeal could be filed and sustained.
The state government said it would ask the Supreme Court to set aside the Court of Appeal judgment, which discharged and acquitted Major Hamza Al-Mustapha in the murder case of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola.
It intended to urge the apex court to uphold and restore the death sentence by hanging imposed on the former CSO to the 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 Alhaja Kudirat Abiola on June 4, 1996, in Lagos State.
In a judgment delivered on January 30, 2012, by Justice Moji Dada, the accused were found culpable as charged and sentenced to death by hanging.
However, in an appeal approached by Al-Mustapha on April 27, 2012, the three-member Court of Appeal, in a unanimous judgment on July 12, 2013, set aside the high court decision, discharged, and acquitted the accused on the grounds that the evidence against them was insufficient to warrant the death sentence.
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