The Supreme Court has thrown out the trial of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (rtd), the former Chief Security Officer and ex-Military Head of State, for the murder of Kudirat Abiola.
According to Channels TV, Lagos State was supposed to re-open the trial, but no lawyers showed up and no paperwork was filed since 2014, when the order to re-open the case was given to them.
Paul Daudu, Al-Mustapha’s lawyer, told the Justices of the Apex Court that Lagos has not done anything to carry out the order it received in 2014 to reopen the trial.
Daudu added that Lagos state, as the appellant, didn’t even file a notice of appeal to show how serious it was about going through with the trial.
The senior counsel told the Apex Court that Lagos had 30 days to file its notice of appeal after the order to reopen the trial was made in 2014.
Daudu said that nothing had been done to follow the ruling more than nine years later. He asked the Court to say that the appellant had dropped the matter and that it should be thrown out completely.
Justice Uwani Aba-Aji, who was in charge of the case, wanted to know if Lagos had been given notice of the hearing. The Court’s Registrar said yes.
The Supreme Court unanimously concluded that Lagos State no longer cares about the case and has therefore dropped it.
Justice Aba-Aji said that nine years was adequate time for the appellant to file a notice of appeal and a brief of appeal in the case.
The Court also said it was disgusting that the state government didn’t have a lawyer present and that the Court and the respondent hadn’t received any information, even though they had been served with a hearing notice since 2020.
So, the case was thrown out.
Kudirat was married to MKO Abiola, a businessman and politician who was thought to have won the June 12, 1993 presidential election. However, former President Ibrahim Babangida canceled the election.
But she was killed in Lagos during the statewide crisis that followed the annulment and while she was still trying to get the military to change their minds about it.
The Lagos governor’s other case, which was also about the same trial, was also thrown out for the same reason.
In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled on Lagos State’s plea to reopen the case out of time. They agreed that Lagos could challenge the Court of Appeal’s decision from July 12, 2013, which freed Al-Mustapha from the murder conviction.
Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen was the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria at the time. He directed Lagos State to file its notice of appeal within 30 days.
Justice Onnoghen’s ruling on the Lagos motion argued by Osunsanya Oluwayemisi, a Senior State Counsel in the Lagos Ministry of Justice, came after Al-Mustapha’s lawyer, Joseph Daudu (SAN), agreed not to contest the application.
The acting CJN said that the top court’s decision has given Lagos more time to appeal the Court of Appeal’s findings in the high-profile murder case. The appeal deadline has been moved from July 12, 2013, when the Court of Appeal’s ruling was made, to January 7, 2014.
In 2014, the Lagos were given permission to dispute the Court of Appeal’s 2013 not guilty decision for the military officer.
The Lagos State government tried to file a notice of appeal at the Supreme Court after the case was reopened. They asked the court for permission to challenge the Appeal Court’s findings of Justices Amina Adamu Augie, Rita Nosakhare Pemu, and Fatimo Omoro Akinbami on the grounds of a miscarriage of justice in the case.
In the case, the state asked the highest court to let it use its constitutional right to check the Appeal Court’s ruling for validity and correctness.
It said it sought to raise its case on debatable legal and factual grounds, including the issue of whether there is any direct or circumstantial evidence proving Al-Mustapha’s culpability in the murder case.
It had given a reason for being late in filing the appeal: it had hired two legal teams to look into the case and the Court of Appeal’s decision.
The government noted that it took a long time for the two legal teams to present their conclusions and suggested that an appeal case can be launched and upheld.
The Lagos State Government indicated that it will approach the Supreme Court to throw out the Court of Appeal’s decision that Major Hamza Al-Mustapha was not guilty of killing Alhaja Kudirat Abiola on July 12, 2013.
Instead of the Appeal Court’s decision, the state government said it would ask the Supreme Court to uphold and restore the death sentence by hanging that a Lagos High Court gave to the former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late Head of State and dictator General Sani Abacha on January 30, 2012.
A Lagos high court charged Al-Mustapha, Mohammed Abacha, and Lateef Shofolahan with two counts of conspiracy to commit murder and the murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola on June 4, 1996, in Lagos State.
Justice Moji Dada of the high court said on January 30, 2012, that the accused were guilty as charged and condemned them to death by hanging.
But when Al-Mustapha went to the Court of Appeal on April 27, 2012, to ask for a review of the trial and conviction, the three-member appellate court Justices agreed on July 12, 2013, that the high court’s decision was wrong, set it aside, and set the accused free because the evidence against them was not strong enough to justify the death penalty.
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