The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the case against Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (rtd), former Chief Security Officer to late military ruler General Sani Abacha, over the 1996 murder of Kudirat Abiola, wife of the acclaimed winner of the 1993 presidential election, after Lagos State failed to prosecute its appeal for nine years.
Al-Mustapha, along with Mohammed Abacha and Lateef Shofolahan, had been convicted and sentenced to death by hanging by a Lagos High Court in 2012, but the Court of Appeal acquitted them in 2013, ruling that prosecutors failed to provide sufficient evidence.
Although the Supreme Court granted Lagos State permission in 2014 to reopen the case despite missing filing deadlines, the state never filed the required appeal documents or sent legal representation to Thursday’s hearing. Al-Mustapha’s counsel, Paul Daudu, SAN, informed the five-member panel led by Justice Uwani Aba-Aji that Lagos had been given a 30-day ultimatum in 2014 to file its notice of appeal but failed to do so, urging the court to find the state had abandoned the case.
The Supreme Court panel agreed, ruling that “nine years was long enough for the appellant to have filed its notice of appeal” and noting there was no correspondence from the state explaining its absence, before dismissing case SC/CR/45/2014. Mrs. Abiola was murdered in Lagos on June 4, 1996, during nationwide protests following the annulment of her husband’s presidential election victory.