The Supreme Court has formally brought to an end the long-running trial of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (rtd), former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to late military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, over the murder of late Alhaja Kudirat Abiola.
Alhaja Kudirat Abiola was the wife of the late businessman and politician, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola, the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election annulled by the administration of former President Ibrahim Babangida.
She was assassinated in Lagos during the nationwide unrest that followed the annulment of the election, amid her relentless campaign for the restoration of her husband’s mandate under military rule.
On Thursday, the apex court finally laid the matter to rest, as a five-member panel of justices of the Supreme Court, led by Justice Uwani Aba-Aji, dismissed the attempt by the Lagos State Government to re-open the murder trial against Al-Mustapha.
At the hearing, where Lagos State was expected to proceed with the re-opened trial, there was no legal representation for the state, and no court processes had been filed since 2014, when the Supreme Court granted Lagos permission to re-open the case.
When the matter was called, counsel to Al-Mustapha, Paul Daudu, SAN, informed the court that Lagos State had taken no steps whatsoever to implement the 2014 order permitting it to re-open the trial.
He told the court that Lagos did not even file a notice of appeal as the appellant to show any seriousness in prosecuting the case.
The senior advocate further reminded the court that when permission was granted in 2014, Lagos State was given a 30-day ultimatum within which to file its notice of appeal.
Daudu explained that more than nine years later, the state had failed to comply with that directive.
He therefore urged the apex court to hold that the appellant had abandoned the matter and to dismiss the case in its entirety.
Presiding over the proceedings, Justice Uwani Aba-Aji asked whether Lagos State had been served with hearing notice, a question the court registrar answered in the affirmative.
In a brief but decisive ruling, the Supreme Court unanimously agreed that Lagos State had clearly lost interest in the matter and had consequently abandoned it.
Justice Aba-Aji held that nine years was more than sufficient time for the appellant to file both its notice of appeal and its brief of argument.
The court further expressed displeasure that the Lagos State Government failed to make any appearance or provide any explanation to the court and the respondent, despite having been served with hearing notice since 2020.
Consequently, the appeal marked SC/CR/45/2014 was dismissed.
Another related appeal filed by the Lagos State Government and marked SC/CR/6/2014, arising from the same trial, was also dismissed on the same grounds.
It would be recalled that in 2014, the Supreme Court had granted an application by Lagos State seeking leave to re-open the case out of time, thereby allowing the state to challenge the July 12, 2013 judgment of the Court of Appeal which discharged and acquitted Al-Mustapha of the murder charge.
In that ruling, a seven-member panel of the apex court led by the then Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen, ordered Lagos State to file its notice of appeal within 30 days.
Justice Onnoghen’s ruling followed submissions by Osunsanya Oluwayemisi, a Senior State Counsel in the Lagos State Ministry of Justice, and the consent of Al-Mustapha’s counsel, Mr. Joseph Daudu, SAN, who did not oppose the application.
The Acting CJN had explained that by the decision of the apex court, the time for Lagos State to appeal the Court of Appeal judgment was extended from July 12, 2013, when the appellate court delivered its verdict, to January 7, 2014.
With the permission granted in 2014, Lagos State was legally cleared to challenge the not-guilty verdict entered in favour of Al-Mustapha by the Court of Appeal in 2013.
In its bid to re-open the case, the Lagos State Government had sought leave to file a notice of appeal out of time, arguing that the Court of Appeal judgment amounted to a miscarriage of justice.
The state had asked the Supreme Court to allow it exercise its constitutional right to test the validity and correctness of the appellate court’s decision delivered by Justices Amina Adamu Augie, Rita Nosakhare Pemu and Fatimo Omoro Akinbami.
It maintained that it intended to raise arguable legal and factual issues, particularly on whether there was any direct or circumstantial evidence linking Al-Mustapha to the murder of Kudirat Abiola.
Lagos State justified the delay in filing the appeal by stating that it constituted two separate legal teams to review the case and the Court of Appeal’s verdict, a process it said took considerable time before a recommendation to appeal was made.
The state government had also indicated its intention to ask the Supreme Court to set aside the Court of Appeal judgment of July 12, 2013, which discharged and acquitted Al-Mustapha.
In its place, Lagos said it would urge the apex court to restore the death sentence by hanging imposed on Al-Mustapha by a Lagos High Court on January 30, 2012.
Al-Mustapha, alongside Mohammed Abacha and Lateef Shofolahan, had been arraigned before a Lagos High Court on a two-count charge of conspiracy to commit murder and the murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola on June 4, 1996, in Lagos State.
In its judgment delivered on January 30, 2012, Justice Moji Dada of the Lagos High Court found the accused guilty as charged and sentenced them to death by hanging.
However, following an appeal filed by Al-Mustapha on April 27, 2012, the Court of Appeal, in a unanimous judgment delivered on July 12, 2013, set aside the conviction and death sentence, holding that the evidence adduced by the prosecution was insufficient to sustain the charge of murder.
