T he Supreme Court, on Thursday, granted the request by the Lagos State government to appeal against the judgment of the Court of Appeal that discharged and acquitted Major Hamza Al-Mustapha in the alleged murder of the 45-year-old Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, wife of the late Chief Moshood Abiola.
The five-member panel of the apex court, presided over by the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, in a ruling, granted the request of the Lagos State government to reopen Kudirat’s murder case against Al-Mustapha, following a motion argued on its behalf by a senior state counsel in the Lagos State Ministry of Justice, Oluwayemisi Osusanya.
Onnoghen, in the ruling, ordered the Lagos State government to file its notice of appeal within 30 days.
Al-Mustapha was the Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha.
In the new move to reopen the case, the Lagos State government had sought to file a notice of appeal at the Supreme Court to allow it challenge the Appeal Court’s decision on the ground of miscarriage of justice in the matter.
It justified its lateness in filing the appeal on the ground that it set up two legal teams to review the circumstances of the case and the verdict of the Court of Appeal.
The state government said it took a long time for the two legal teams to present their findings and recommended that an appeal case could be filed and sustained.
The Lagos State government said it would ask the apex court to set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which had, on July 12, 2013, discharged and acquitted Al-Mustapha, in the murder case of the late Alhaja Kudirat.
In place of the Appeal Court’s decision, the state government said it would plead with the apex court to uphold and restore the death sentence by hanging placed on Al-Mustapha by a Lagos High Court on January 30, 2012.
Al-Mustapha, alongside Alhaji Lateef Shofolahan, were sentenced to death on January 30, 2012 by Justice Mojisola Dada for conspiracy in the murder of the late Kudirat who was shot in Lagos on June 4, 1996.
They were arraigned in October 1999 on a four-count charge bordering on conspiracy and involvement in the murder of the woman.
Justice Dada had found the convicts guilty of the offence and accordingly sentenced them to death by hanging.
However, Al-Mustapha, who was not satisfied with the judgment of the lower court, approached the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal and the appellate court, presided over by Justice Rita Pemu, in her judgment, held that, “the lower court was eager to secure a conviction by all means.”
The appellate court, therefore, discharged and acquitted the duo of conspiracy and murder.