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| Major Al Mustapha |
Al-Mustapha’s release rattles North -Politicians
jittery over his enormous influence, war chest
Jubilation over Al Mustapha's release-New political block may emerge.
The unanticipated release of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (retd) by the
Court of Appeal is said to be rattling old political camps in the
North, as tongues are wagging over alleged political undertones and its
implications for the 2015 political permutations.
Prior, the northern region was prior to the release of the former
Chief Security Officer to General Sani Abacha dominated by three main
political blocks, which will now contend with a new block to be led by
Al-Mustapha, who had cleverly managed to win some support for himself
with his incarceration.
The old camps include the Babangida/Abdulsalami group, the Buhari
alliance and the northern mainstream camp of the ruling Peoples
Democratic Party.
The acquitted security chief had throughout the 14 years he was in
prison pointed fingers at top former military leaders as the brain
behind his trial.
Mustapha had always maintained that his trial was activated by those
who believed he knew too much about the circumstances surrounding the
death of the late winner of the 2003 presidential election, Chief MKO
Abiola, who died in detention.
Hours after his release, Al-Mustapha has become a new rallying point
for northern political actors who see him as a fresh face in the
dilluted political waters of the north thus raising fears in old
political camps due to his enormous influence during the dark days of
the Abacha regime.
Checks showed that though the release is generating furore in some
sections of the country, particularly the South-West where the slain
Kudirat Abiola and her husband hailed from, the political base already
built around the former security chief while in detention is said to
have begun to work in anticipation of the agenda he may launch in the
countdown to 2015.
Al-Mustapaha was earlier rumored to be eyeing the governorship seat
of Yobe State with an organisation said to have developed around the
influential military officer. The massive reach of his network and the
rumoured enormous war chest are said to be raising fears, especially as
old allies of the late military head of state, General Abacha, are
reported to be wakening up from their low-profile postures.
In a manner that showed the new found popularity of the Yobe
indigene, some state governments in the North are already falling over
each other to host and organize a reception for him. The Kano State
government is reported to have announced a plan to host and celebrate
the ex-Abacha aide.
While Al-Mustapha has not decided on party affiliation, reports
indicated that he may align with none of the old power blocks in the
North, especially as they are led by leaders he had accused several
times of persecuting him due to lingering politics of the old Abacha
era. It was said that, as a result, he might not likely support any
political affiliation which the two former military presidents, Generals
Babangida and Abubakar belong to.
Meanwhile, watchers of the political trends are already interpreting
the court judgment as capable of enhancing the political base of
President Jonathan in the North.
While the court judgment is seen as based on purely legal
considerations, there are strong reports that Al-Mustapha may pitch his
tent with the pro-Jonathan forces in the North due to his well
documented differences with the camps of Generals Babangida and
Abdul-Salami Abubabkar.
According to a political leader: “Al-Mustapha may be an asset for
Jonathan due to his deep knowledge of deeds of many top Northern leaders
who are currently opposed to the President .We all know he won’t side
with some forces in the North and he may feel the president has solved
the 14-year problem that kept him in jail, though the release had
nothing to do with the president.”
According to him, Jonathan now has a strong voice in Al-Mustapha who
knows so much about the President’s opponents. If he allows the young
man to open up, then 2015 will take a new character.”
It will be recalled that President Jonathan had come under intense
pressure to effect the release of Major Al-Mustapha. There is, however,
no evidence to support any claim of presidential intervention.
Reactions to Al-Mustapha’s release
His house wears new look in Kano
Kola Oyelere - KanoMAJOR
Hamza Al-Mustapha’s house, located at Bompai in Kano State is now
wearing a new look, as his loyalists were said to have begun plans to
receive him in a grand style.
Relatives, friends and loyalists had started trooping to Bompai in
the early hours of Saturday to welcome him, but were told he was yet to
arrive from Lagos.
A source told Sunday Tribune that some youths in the area had planned
to wear shirts with inscription ‘Al-Mustapa with ‘Al-Mustapha freedom
Na Go de Allah’, meaning (Al-Mustapha freedom, we thank Allah).
The source also hinted that he was expected to arrive the city of Kano on Friday, but his arrival had been shifted today.
It was equally gathered that security had been beefed up by law
enforcement agents to curtail the perceived large crowds expected to
give him a rousing welcome.
It will be recall that Major Al-Mustapha lost his parents while he was incarcerated.
A close friend of Al Mustapha, Ibrahim Shehu, expressed his delight
at his friend’s release, saying “we thank Nigerians for their support
during the trial period and we are all happy that our man is returning
to us safely,” he said.
Fani-Kayode hails judgement
Paschal Okeke - AbujaTHE
Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has hailed the judgement
of the Court of Appeal yesterday, which ruled that retired Colonel
Hamza Al Mustapha, the former Chief Security Officer to former Head of
State, Late General Sani Abacha, must be set free of a murder conviction
for the June 4, 1996 assassination of Kudirat Abiola, a wife of Moshood
Kashimawo Abiola, winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.
Fani-Kayode who stated this while speaking to journalists in Abuja,
stated that the state had failed woefully in keeping Al Mustapha for
more than 14 years without any conviction.
The former Aviation Minister said that he had looked at the
conviction given to Al Mustapha by the Lagos State High Court and had
found no evidence to convict him.
He commended the Judges of the Court of Appeal that granted the former CSO freedom.
He said “this is the man that would tell us the relevant answers, he
will tell us who killed MKO Abiola, Kudirat Abiola and Sani Abacha, the
people who did it are still at large and free”.
Fani-Kayode noted that he had never been a pro-Abacha, and that he
was even driven out on exile during the administration of the late
General.
He stated that the big shots who were at the helm of power should be the ones to be held for all the series of murder cases.
He said he was against the process of not the government not
investigating high profile murder cases through the years, including
that of the former Minister of Justice, Bola Ige.
I have mixed feelings —Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa
Yejide Gbenga-Ogundare - LagosLAGOS
based Human Rights activist and Lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa on Saturday
expressed mixed feelings about acquittal granted Major Hamza
Al-Mustapha, by the court of Appeal sitting in Lagos.
According to him, the acquittal was a proof that the Abacha’s regime
was not a law-abiding period as if it had been then, Al-Mustapha would
have been dead by now”I received the news of Al-Mustapha’s acquittal by
the court of appeal with mixed feelings. I am happy that the system of
due process, of democratic resort to the law court, for redress, was
working.
“Had the judgment of the Hon. Justice Mojisola Dada, of the Lagos
High Court, that sentenced him to death, been delivered in 1994 when
Al-Mustapha was CSO to late Gen Sani Abacha, he would have been executed
by now.
“It is indeed gratifying, that Al-Mustapha is now benefitting from the same judiciary that he worked tirelessly to annihilate.
“Thus, I cannot take the acquittal as verdict of clearance for
Al-Mustapha. I personally tasted of the madness, of the wickedness and
deprivations that Gen Abacha and Al-Mustapha subjected Nigerians to,
when I was incarcerated in solitary confinement at the Directorate of
Military Intelligence for nine months without trial”.
“The judgment of Hon. Justice I.N. Auta, that I should be released,
was ignored and derided by Al-Mustapha and his co-dictators. But today,
he was released from Kirikiri prisons the same day the judgment was
delivered.
“If it is indeed true that there was no evidence before the court
linking him with the charges, or there’s any doubt in the case of the
prosecution, then he is entitled to the liberty of man.
“But that is not the end if the case, at all. There is the judgment
of man, judgment of self (conscience) and the judgment of God. It is
clear to me that MKO Abiola, Kudirat Abiola and all other martyrs, who
gave up their lives and liberties for this present democracy, have not
died or laboured in vain.
“I commend the Lagos State Government and especially those lawyers at
the Ministry of Justice, who have followed all these cases. I urge the
government to appeal against the judgment to the Supreme Court.
“The ultimate lesson that Al-Mustapha and other enemies of democracy
should learn is that dictatorship does not pay, and that in the end of
it all, we should allow democracy, freedom of choice and genuine
aspirations, which Kudirat paid for with her life, to reign,” Adegboruwa
said.
How TB Joshua predicted Al-Mustapha’s incarceration, release
Head
of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, Prophet T.B. Joshua has
revealed how he predicted many years ago the ordeal that former Chief
Security Officer to late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, Major Hamza
Al-Mustapha, would suffer and his eventual release, noting that this
was why the latter visited his church in Ikotun Egbe area of Lagos
immediately after his release on Friday.
Joshua, who reportedly made this known to one Halima Babangida, a
freelance journalist, in an interview, said he got to know Al-Mustapha
when his former boss was still in power and he [Joshua] was taken to the
Aso Rock in connection with a petition written about him.
Al-Mustapha had reportedly visited Joshua clad in the same apparel he
left the prisons in, with the prophet saying: “I was able to reveal to
them who I am by telling them what was to come as a prophet.
“One of those things I mentioned to them and to Mustapha in
particular, was what he went through, though he did not believe me then.
That was why when it came to pass, I was the first person he
remembered. I told him that he would spend several years in prison and
would be finally released which no one else had ever told him.”
called from Nigerian Tribune.
