REPORTS have it that the dreaded sect, Boko Haram, has taken a position on the death sentence passed on the Chief Security Officer to the late General Sani Abacha, Major Hamzat Al-Mustapha, over the killing of Kudirat Abiola, wife of the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola “by taunting the government to carry out the judgment and we’ll widen the scope of our operations.”
The Boko Haram said once the death sentence was executed, it would extend its attack to judges and courts all over Nigeria.
The group’s spokesman, Abul Qaqa, was quoted to have said in a statement on Monday night: “Should the Nigerian government dare carry out the sentence announced earlier today on Major Hamzat Al-Mustapha (retd), the full-scale attacks will be expanded from security agencies and agents to the judiciary, from police stations to courts and so on. All chief justices, High Court judges and Appeal Court judges should take note. The blood of Al-Mustapha is the blood of the Nigerian masses.”
A Lagos State High Court, on Monday, sentenced Al-Mustapha and Lateef Shofolahan to death by hanging for their involvement in the conspiracy to kill and for killing Kudirat on June 4, 1996.
A leader of the disbanded Strike Force, Barnabas Jabila, popularly known as Sergeant Rogers, confessed to carrying out the shooting of Kudirat based on a plot that was hatched with the knowledge of Al-Mustapha and Shofolahan.
Also reacting to the death sentence, leader of the Niger Delta Volunteers Force, Mujahid Dokubo-Asari said Al-Mustapha must not be executed.
Dokubo-Asari insinuated that the decision to sentence Al-Mustapha to death at this period was meant to destabilise the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.
He said that during past administrations, those trying Al-Mustapha could not get a conviction, asking why it was now that Jonathan was in power that they were able to do so.
Writing on his wall on social media network, Facebook, Dokubo-Asari said: “This is a day of shame for us all....shame on you Nigeria....al-Mustapha and other innocent men will not die....they will live. Insha Allah...the treachery and conspiracy against Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan will fail. When your man OBJ (former President Olusegun Obasanjo) was there for eight years, you did not get a conviction...Umar Musa Yar’Adua, you did not get a conviction....Shame on you...your conspiracy will fail.”
Meanwhile, apparently worried by the death sentence on Major Al-Mustapha, chieftains of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and emirs from across the North converged on Kaduna, on Tuesday, for a secret meeting on how to confront the issue.
Newsmen were not allowed into the Lugard Hall venue of the meeting, which lasted for about five hours, the emirs refused to speak to them nor issued a communique.
However, a source told newsmen that apart from the issue of Al-Mustapha, which they all believed would be best handled by the judiciary, they also discussed the state of the nation, the recent Kano attacks and other threats by the leadership of the Boko Haram sect.
The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, led the meeting and others in attendance were the Emir of Katsina, Alhaji Kabir Nagogo; Emirs of Zazzau, Dr Shehu Idris; Gombe, Paki, Zamfara; the Etsu Nupe, the Tor Tiv and the Olofa of Ofa, Oba Muftau Osuoye.
The Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, was absent at the meeting, as he was to be at home receiving visitors, who thronged his palace to show sympathy over the Kano bombing.
Meanwhile, the authorities of the Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS) have commenced the renovation of the cells that will house Al-Mustapha and Alhaji Shofolahan.
Nigerian Tribune learnt, on Tuesday, that renovation had commenced in the two cells that would house them at the Maximum Prison Special, Kirikiri, Lagos.
A source at the prison said the cells were being painted while toiletries were to be provided.
Unlike a situation where two or three condemned criminals stay in one cell, Al-Mustapha and Shofolahan are expected to stay in one cell each.
On arrival at the prison on Monday, it was learnt that Al-Mustapha distributed N300 each to 162 prisoners serving life imprisonment and those condemned.
It was further learnt that he allegedly released N1.5 million for the renovation of Block 2 where he stayed until he was condemned and N1.06 million for sporting activities.
The former CSO was sentenced to death by hanging for his role in the murder of Mrs Kudirat Abiola, wife of the winner of June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief MKO Abiola, on June 4, 1996.
Al-Mustapha, Shofolahan appeal judgment
Both Al-Mustapha and Alhaji Shofolahan, on Tuesday, filed notices of appeal against the judgment of the trial court.
The decision of the lower court declared by Justice Mojisola Dada was described by the duo of Al-Mustapha and Shofolahan as “unreasonable, unwarranted and a clear miscarriage of justice.”
The trial judge had, while handing down the verdict, held that the prosecution was able to successfully prove that Al-Mustapha and Shofolahan conspired with others to kill Kudirat on June 4, 1996.
In his notice of appeal, Al-Mustapha wanted the Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos to set aside the judgment and discharge him of the charges of conspiracy and murder.
The duo, in their notices of appeal filed on their behalf by their lawyer, Olalekan Ojo, argued that Justice Dada erred in law by arriving at the conclusion that they killed Alhaja Kudirat Abiola on June 4, 1996.
While Al-Mustapha’s appeal was anchored on four grounds, Shofolahan hinged his appeal on five grounds.
They argued that the trial court erred in law by relying on the evidence of Dr Ore Falomo, the first prosecution witness, that the bullet extracted from Kudirat’s head was a special bullet not commonly seen, and that it was a fifth columnist in the government that carried out the killing, following the look of the bullet.
The appellants maintained that Dr Falomo was rather a medical practitioner and not a ballistician, and that the bullet in question was not produced as evidence, and so the said Dr Falomo lacked the expertise to give expert opinion on any kind of bullet.
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the appeal.
Source:Nigerian Tribune
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