The Supreme Court has finally brought to an end the long-running murder case against Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (rtd), former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to late military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, over the assassination of prominent politician, Alhaja Kudirat Abiola.
In a unanimous decision delivered on Thursday, a five-man panel of Justices of the apex court, led by Justice Uwani Aba-Aji, dismissed the appeal filed by the Lagos State Government, holding that the state had abandoned the case through prolonged inaction.
Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, wife of the late business mogul and politician, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola, was assassinated in Lagos during the nationwide unrest that followed the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election by former military President, General Ibrahim Babangida. Her killing occurred amid her relentless struggle to reverse the annulment and restore her husband’s mandate.
At the Supreme Court proceedings, where Lagos State was expected to re-open the trial, there was no legal representation for the state, nor had any court process been filed since 2014, when the court granted Lagos permission to revive the case.
Counsel to Al-Mustapha, Paul Daudu, SAN, informed the court that despite being granted leave in 2014 to re-open the matter, Lagos State failed to take any step to prosecute the appeal. He noted that the state did not even file a notice of appeal within the 30-day period ordered by the court, nor at any time in the nine years that followed.
Daudu urged the court to rule that the appellant had clearly lost interest in the case and to dismiss it in its entirety.
Justice Aba-Aji sought confirmation on whether Lagos State had been served with hearing notices, a question the court registrar answered in the affirmative. The court observed that despite being served since 2020, the state neither appeared nor offered any explanation for its absence.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court expressed displeasure over the conduct of the Lagos State Government, describing nine years as more than sufficient time to file a notice and brief of appeal if it was serious about prosecuting the matter.
Consequently, the court dismissed the appeal marked SC/CR/45/2014, holding that Lagos State had abandoned the case. A related appeal filed by the Lagos State Governor, marked SC/CR/6/2014, was also dismissed on the same grounds.
It would be recalled that in 2014, the Supreme Court, in a ruling delivered by then Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen, granted Lagos State permission to re-open the case out of time. The court ordered the state to file its notice of appeal within 30 days to challenge the July 12, 2013 judgment of the Court of Appeal, which had discharged and acquitted Al-Mustapha.
Justice Onnoghen’s ruling followed an application argued by Osunsanya Oluwayemisi, a Senior State Counsel in the Lagos State Ministry of Justice, and was granted with the consent of Al-Mustapha’s counsel, Joseph Daudu, SAN, who did not oppose the request.
By that ruling, the Supreme Court extended Lagos State’s time to appeal against the Court of Appeal judgment from July 12, 2013 to January 7, 2014, thereby clearing the way for the state to contest the acquittal.
In its bid to re-open the case, Lagos State had argued that the Appeal Court’s decision, delivered by Justices Amina Adamu Augie, Rita Nosakhare Pemu, and Fatima Omoro Akinbami, resulted in a miscarriage of justice. The state maintained that it intended to raise substantial legal and factual issues, including whether there was sufficient direct or circumstantial evidence linking Al-Mustapha to the murder.
However, with the Supreme Court’s latest ruling, the matter has now been conclusively laid to rest.
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