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Tag: Al-Mustapha

  • Al-Mustapha’s release

    Al-Mustapha’s release

    • It reflects the inadequacy of our justice system to protect the just and vulnerable

    The Nigerian criminal justice system was again ridiculed with the acquittal of Major Hamza al-Mustapha and Lateef Sofolahan, over the murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, wife of the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, after a 14-year trial. The mockery of the judicial system is even more pronounced as the late Kudirat was clearly murdered in cold blood; yet, with al-Mustapha’s acquittal, it is as if that fact is a farce. Again, before this acquittal, some prominent Nigerians were openly campaigning for al-Mustapha’s release, and attempting to define crime in parochial terms; even as al-Mustapha’s lawyers filibustered throughout the trial.

    It is perhaps even more cynical, that the court of appeal discharged and acquitted al-Mustapha because the prosecution could not prove its case beyond reasonable doubt, as required by law. Yet, the same prosecution made a deal with the self-confessed murderer of Kudirat, Sergeant Rogers, in order to get at al-Mustapha who he claimed gave the instructions and the ammunition for the murder. Now, with a deal in the bag for Rogers, and the prosecution of his alleged master declared insufficient by the court, the result is that nobody would suffer for the culpable murder of Alhaja Abiola.

    Such an outcome is a mockery of our common humanity. To show that our system is thoroughly challenged, Sergeant Rogers, despite his confession of championing several atrocities as a soldier, is still in the employ of the Nigerian Army, just as al-Mustapha is now out, and is already laying claim to be due for the rank of General in the same army. The insanity is completed with the wild celebration over al-Mustapha’s release, and the disgraceful reception accorded him by the Kano State government and sundry groups, as if his mendacious audacity during the ignoble Abacha regime is not enough reason to keep that critical participant at an arm’s length.

    As even al-Mustapha’s fans would accept, their hero was the chief security officer to General Sani Abacha who presided over the state murder of several Nigerians, for their political beliefs. Indeed, it was common knowledge that he was a very powerful and loyal security chief to his master, and under their care, Pa Alfred Rewane, Chief Abraham Adesanya, Gen. Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, Mr. Alex Ibru, Bagauda Kaltho, Mrs Esther A. Tejuoso, Dr. Sola Omatsola and several others were either shot at or killed by undoubtedly agents of the state. It is also common knowledge that several witnesses at the Oputa panel gave evidence of unquestionable cruelty perpetrated, if not by al-Mustapha, certainly by those under his control.

    So, al-Mustapha’s acquittal over the murder of Kudirat, in our view, merely confirms the vulnerability of our criminal justice system. For, no one would doubt that Kudirat was killed by the agents of the state, following her campaign that her husband be released and that he be handed over the presidential mandate freely given to him by Nigerians at the 1993 election. It is also certain that al-Mustapha was chief security officer to that murderous general, who granted him unprecedented powers, well above his superiors in the army, and under their watch several murders, including that of Kudirat, were committed by agents of the state.

    Therefore, the fact that al-Mustapha and his co-accused, Sofolahan could not be convicted at the appeal court, after their condemnation to death at the trial court is nothing to celebrate; more so as the prosecution can further appeal to the Supreme Court. In our view, there is the urgent need to strengthen our criminal justice system, to avoid a similar unwinding trial of an accused person for 14 years, after which his innocence is pronounced.

  • Justice without humanity

    Justice without humanity

    ‘Justice must be rooted in confidence and confidence is destroyed when right-minded people go away thinking: The judge is biased’ – Lord Denning (MR) in: Metropolitan Properties Co. Ltd v. Lennon (1969) QB557@559,

    The above inimitable quote of immortal Lord Denning (MR) has been affirmed mostly on a number of occasions through inimical criminal court judgments to the detriment of the society and the entire legal system. This aspect of law, in mostly unforgivable manner, had made mincemeat of this legal juggernaut’s statement. This, no doubt, is creating in the court of public opinion, a difficult comprehension of the cobweb called law – albeit criminal law.

    In this area of law, any slight oversight on the part of the prosecution to convincingly prove an element in his case is taken to the advantage of the accused. The prosecution in a criminal case over the ages is expected to prove his case beyond every reasonable doubt. Failure to achieve this aim has led in many glaring criminal case instancesm to the exculpation of an accused standing arraignment. Yes, in criminal matters, nothing is sacrosanct until the court finally gives its judgment. And the judgment is determined by the rigour of investigation, the degree of evidence adduced and their deployment by an intelligently smart advocate (usually called a barrister) with good understanding of legal and criminal procedures.

    In other jurisdictions, for example in Britain, the paper work relating to first point of contact with the accused, seeking for and weighing of evidential value, preparation of relevant substantive laws among others, are done and prepared by a solicitor. The solicitor gets all the relevant information and evidence, including cases to be cited in a case file and merely handed such over to an advocate that goes before the court to argue the matter. This allows for compartmentalisation of duties and efficient quick pursuits of cases.

    It is still astonishing why a nation like ours that inherited the British common law system is not adopting this system almost 53 years after attaining independence. The legal trend in the country today remains the fusion of the jobs of both the Barrister and Solicitor. And the country’s legal system is the worse for it as typified by the last appellate court’s judgment discharging and acquitting Major Hamzat al-Mustapha, former CSO to despotic General Sani Abacha and Lateef Sofolahan, his spy ally for lack of proof of evidence.

    If the al-Mustapha’s case had been promptly dispensed with, about ten years ago, it is likely certain that the outcome of the judgment would have been different, despite the initial judicial filibustering of the defence counsels and at a later point the covert conspiratorial inclinations of some unseen powerful elements in government that compelled star witness, Barnabas Mshiela (a.k.a Sergeant Rogers) and others to recant their earlier confessional statements regarding the persons that sent them on the alleged journey to kill Kudirat Abiola. A solicitor investigating such matter would have exemplified more adroitness by being more professional in retrieving statements from Rogers and others in such a way that recanting on such would have been near impossibility at a later date.

    However, since the current legal fad is for police investigative police officer to probe a criminal matter, most criminal cases have suffered delays while most times, shoddy investigations are carried out and presented before the court to the detriment of the entire criminal justice system of the federation. The shoddy job done could not have been the problem of the justice ministry that merely acted on the file sent to it by the police. While acknowledging that the Nigeria Police has so many lawyers as Investigating Officers (IPOs), the fact still remains that the right attitude and good work environment are absolutely missing in the discharge of such an important and fundamental function.

    The country’s legal henchmen and women must adopt a reform that would separate the currently fused jobs of a barrister and solicitor and perhaps allow the latter to do more of theoretical and investigative jobs to aid the broadening of the frontiers of criminal law practice, while the barristers handle the advocacy aspect as is being done in Britain and other countries. Apart from allowing graduates of law to be gainfully employed, it will also avail those of us that have gone to the Law School the option of institutional specialisation. One thing is also certain: a solicitor involved in investigating a criminal case will be more justice-conscious than an IPO that is not only under-paid but grossly ill-trained and hungry to pay due attention to societal interests.

    Though very painful, the Court of Appeal cannot be entirely blamed for exonerating al-Mustapha and Sofolahan for lack of evidence in the humble view of the learned three female justices of the court that heard the appeal. Whatever evidence exists outside the court in a criminal matter must surely be brought and proved before it; otherwise, the matter will be thrown out. In this case, the recant by Rogers did a fatal blow. However, the judgment will forever continue to generate intense debate and acrimony in the polity for as long as the injustice of annulling the June12, 1993 Presidential Election remains un-redressed and the question regarding who killed Kudirat Abiola not answered by the Nigerian system. The matter will continue to further blow ill-will in victims of that inhuman regime, their families and other Nigerians with conscience and good sense of history.

    The al-Mustapha/Sofolahan appellate court acquittal judgment might be legally defensible; but like the Stanford, Florida’s United States’ court murder case judgment of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, it has eroded public’s confidence in the judicial system having left majority of right thinking men to think, as observed by Lord Denning (MR) that the appellate court justices are biased. Another name for this kind of scenarios is justice without humanity – courtesy of the temple of justice.

    Madiba at 95

    Nelson Mandela, the gift of God to Africa and humanity was 95 yesterday. In contemporary epoch, it is doubtful whether there has been universal consensus over the greatness of any living creature. But on Mandela, the world in unison proclaimed him a ‘saint before man and God.’

    He has been an inspiration to billions of people around the world: A model and champion of good governance, especially in a continent riddled with tyrants and leaders with infinitesimal regard for democracy. Here is my unflinching goodwill wish for this man of global reverence at 95.

  • Army rules out promotion, decoration for al-Mustapha

    Army rules out promotion, decoration for al-Mustapha

    •Clark calls for review of criminal justice administration

    The authorities of the Nigerian Army have denied reports in some national dailies and online portals announcing plans by the Army to promote and decorate Major Hamzat al-Mustapha with the rank of a Brigadier General.

    A statement by the Director of Army Public Relations, Brigadier-General Ibrahim Attahiru, yesterday said there was no truth in the report.

    Gen. Attahiru said all administrative procedures in respect of the Army are guided by extant administrative rules and guidelines covering the entire Nigerian Armed Forces.

    The statement reads: “The attention of the Nigerian Army has been drawn to an erroneous publication being circulated on the Internet about the decoration of the former Chief Security Officer to the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, Major Hamza al- Mustapha with the rank of a Brigadier General following his recent acquittal by the court.

    “The Nigerian Army as a professional force wishes to state that all administrative procedures are guided by extant administrative rules and regulations, such as the Armed Forces of Nigeria Harmonised Terms and Conditions of Service amongst others.

    “The Nigerian Army wishes to advise the media to always cross check facts before going to the press, to avoid misinformation, misrepresentation and sensationalism in its reportage.”

    Also yesterday, Southsouth leader Chief Edwin Clark hailed the discharge and acquittal of al-Mustapha just as he called for the review of the country’s criminal justice administration law and other enabling rules.

    This, he said, is to ensure that there is no delay in the dispensation of justice.

    The elderstateman said thefreedom granted Major al-Mustapha, is justified after about 15 years of standing trial.

    Chief Clark made his position known in a statement in Abuja.

    He said: “I recall that sometime in November 2011,I appealed to the Federal Government and the Lagos State Government to pardon Al-Mustapha on the ground that the trial is becoming punitive and has taken over 12 years at the time.

    “Now that he has been freed by the Court of Appeal, he should settle down, get integrated with other Nigerians and there should be spirit of forgiveness from both sides and no one should indulge in unnecessary politicking on the validity or otherwise of the judgement”.

    In Kano yesterday, al-Mustapha visited some Islamic scholars,. who expressed appreciation to God for his freedom and urged him to dedicate his life to Allah in this Ramadan period and always.

    His first point of call was the Al-furquan Mosque in Nassarawa GRA where the Chief Imam, Sheikh Bashir Umar prayed to Allah to continue to guide and protect al-Mustapha, while urging him to give all his heart to Allah who has made it possible for him to regain his freedom.

    Sheikh Umar said: “You have to see all these persecution and tribulation you suffered as the will of Allah; and what you should do now is to totally submit yourself to God. Prophet Yusuf had similar trials but at the end, he was compensated by Allah with greater position.”

  • Lagos ACN decries acquittal of al- Mustapha

    Lagos ACN decries acquittal of al- Mustapha

    Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has decried the acquittal of Maj. Hamza al-Mustapha in the assassination of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola.

    She was the slain wife of the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, the late Chief MKO Abiola.

    al-Mustapha was the Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late Head of State Gen. Sani Abacha.

    ACN said the acquittal is another indictment on the capacity of the judiciary to avail Nigerians of justice.

    It said the acquittal was a shame and followed a pattern that had never punished high net-worth offenders for crimes they committed either against the state or their compatriots.

    In a statement in Lagos by its Publicity Secretary Joe Igbokwe, Lagos ACN said given the weighty evidence that had been brought against al- Mustapha, including the confessions of Barnabas Msheilla Kabila (aka Sgt. Rogers) and Maj. Muhammed Abdul, the men that allegedly killed Mrs. Abiola and Alhaji Lateef Shofolahan; dismissing the case for lack of evidence seemed to be a way of ensuring that al- Mustapha escaped justice and not in any way a means of polishing the soiled image of the judiciary.

    The party urged the Lagos State Government to appeal the judgment, as it believed that there was weighty evidence that linked al-Mustapha to the murder of Alhaja Abiola.

    The statement reads: “We are shocked at the acquittal of al-Mustapha, given the evidence that had been brought against him and his co-accused. We wonder how the Appeal Court arrived at its judgment. We are aware of the huge cache of evidence marshalled by the prosecution and we are aware that these are incontrovertible evidence against al-Mustapha, contrary to the ruling of the Appeal Court, which chose to hide under the well-abused lingo of Nigerian judges that ‘the prosecution had not proved its case beyond all reasonable doubt’. “We see this as a convenient alibi for a pliable judiciary, such as ours, without the healthy interface of a jury, to pervert justice and ensure that criminals are not punished for their crimes.

    “Lagos ACN notes that the acquittal is coming a few days after the popular Internet news site, Saharareporters.com, did a detailed report of an extensive plan to free al-Mustapha and ensure he is not punished for the assassination of Alhaja Abiola. We see this acquittal as a shame on the country and particularly a shame on the judiciary, which seems not to be in a hurry to clear its name of the sordid history of filth, which has prevented it from being an independent and incorruptible dispenser of justice. If the judiciary continues to operate at the behest of the highest bidder, we see no hope for the country.

    “We believe that the judiciary, by this questionable verdict, is hoping to consign the killing of Kudirat Abiola to the long list of unsolved assassination cases that hunt the country today. We recall the murder of Bola Ige where the alleged killers were helped to evade justice and even rewarded with political offices. We recall the murder of Marshall Harry, A.K. Dikibo, Hassan Olajokun, Ogbonnaya Uche, Funsho Williams, Dr. Daramola, among the uncountable cases of murderous impunity that have been interred in the thriving list of Nigerian judicial ‘whodunnit’. We see the verdict of the Appeal Court acquitting al- Mustapha as an attempt to enrich the country’s bloating list of unsolved murder and assassination cases and we warn that this will come up to hunt all of us in future.

    “Lagos ACN is not satisfied with the quality of verdicts that our courts churn out as there is an impression among Nigerians that the courts are there for only the rich to manipulate. We therefore believe that a thorough jury system will help enrich the verdict of our courts.

    “While we align ourselves with the opinions of millions of Nigerians, who have enjoined the Lagos State Government to not only appeal the latest verdict but also pursue the course of justice for the slain Kudirat Abiola, we state that the country is sitting on a keg of gun powder if Nigerians, high and low, could be killed at will and their killings shoved under the carpet.”

     

  • al-Mustapha: Now that the ‘canary’ is free

    al-Mustapha: Now that the ‘canary’ is free

    Last Friday, July 12, brought an end to one of the most celebrated and longest running murder cases in the country. On that day, Justice Rita Pemu, reading the unanimous decision of the three-woman panel of the Appeal Court sitting in Lagos, discharged and acquitted Major Hamza al-Mustapha of the charge that he conspired to murder Alhaja Kudirat Abiola in Lagos on June 4, 1996. Kudirat was the wife of Chief M. K. O. Abiola, the putative winner of the annulled 1993 presidential election.

    Predictably, the verdict has divided Nigerians right down the middle along regional, if not sectarian, lines; whereas most Northerners seemed to see the verdict as the vindication of a long persecuted hero, most South-Westerners seemed to see it as the untenable exoneration of a certified villain.

    This division was clearly reflected, on the one hand, by the hero’s welcome the major received in Kano, his adopted state – he is originally from Yobe – and, on the other hand, by the rejection of the verdict by Afenifere, the Yoruba umbrella cultural organisation and by the Gani Adams faction of the Odua Peoples Congress, the leading Yoruba militia. (It must be noted here that Dr. Fredrick Fasehun who leads the other faction, and who indeed claims to be its original founder, has not only consistently said he believed in the innocence of al-Mustapha. He has vigorously campaigned for his release from prison.)

    al-Mustapha’s plight started on October 21, 1998, when he and several other officers were arrested on suspicion that they were in illegal possession of arms, among other allegations. This was barely four months after the sudden and mysterious death in June of Head of State, General Sani Abacha, whose chief security officer he was. He was to remain in jail for nearly 15 years charged, along with others, with various crimes, including complicity in the murder of Kudirat and Chief Alfred Rewane, a chieftain of the anti-Abacha crusaders who was killed in October 1995, and of Major-General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua who died in prison in 1997, accused of attempting to overthrow Abacha.

    The major was also charged, again along with others, with the attempted murder of Mr Alex Ibru, the late publisher of The Guardian and Abacha’s internal affairs minister, and the attempted murder of Senator Abraham Adesanya, the leader of Afenifere. In time he was also charged in 2004 with an attempt to overthrow the elected government of President Olusegun Obasanjo even while still in detention.

    If all this looked like too much to charge one man with it was mainly because the man ingeniously painted himself in the image of an officer whose only crime was to have carried out his duties to his principal to the best of his ability and in the process to have secured the integrity and security of the country.

    For one year after he was first picked up, al-Mustapha remained in detention without trial. In October 1999, five months after Obasanjo was sworn in as civilian president, he sued the government for the violation of his human rights. The courts agreed and said he should be released. The government ignored the order. Instead al-Mustapha was charged with several murders and attempted murders including, ironically, that of Senator Adesanya who, along with several Afenifere chieftains, including Chiefs Ganiyu Dawodu and Ayo Adebanjo had been charged by the Abacha regime for the murder of Kudirat!

    The clever intelligence officer that he was, al-Mustapha chose to blame his predicament not on the government that chose to prosecute him. Instead he chose to blame the government of General Abubakar Abdulsalami that first detained him. The former head of state, he said, wanted him out of circulation because the general knew he knew both Abacha and Abiola did not die naturally but were murdered and he also knew how allegedly complicit the general was in the deaths of the two, the first in June and the second the following month.

    If his choice of who to blame for his predicament and of the platform to make the allegation – the Oputa panel set up by Obasanjo in 1999 but which began its hearing in 2000 on abuses of human rights in the country since 1979 – was to create a diversion from the charges he was facing, he succeeded beyond his wildest imagination. Suddenly public attention shifted from his many alleged abuses of power, as probably the most powerful chief security officer of a head of state Nigeria has ever seen, to the alleged crimes of General Abubakar.

    One newspaper that seemed to have captured the shift in public mood was the defunct The Comet. In an editorial on December 4, 2000 aptly entitled “al-Mustapha: Let the ‘canary’ sing publicly,” following al-Mustapha testimony before Oputa, the newspaper said “Nigerians deserve to hear everything from al-Mustapha since he has himself, under oath promised to tell the truth and nothing but the truth. He should be allowed to tell his version of the events and if he incriminates anybody or groups of persons, they too should have their days at the Oputa Commission.”

    It then concluded that al-Mustapha must be given maximum protection to tell his story in public. It took the major about 12 years to retell his story in public. This was in August 2011 when himself and his co-defendant, Lateef Sofolahan, said to be an aide to Kudirat, testified before a Lagos State High Court sitting in Igbosere to their innocence in her murder. On this occasion not only did he repeat his allegation of being persecuted for what he knew, he also added a new claim that the chieftains of Afenifere had been heavily bribed into silence by General Abubakar over the death of Abiola.

    Predictably the same media that had hailed him over his accusation against General Abubakar turned completely round to condemn him as an inveterate liar.

    In between Oputa in 2000 and the Igboshere High Court, himself and his co-defendants in other murder cases, namely General Ishaya Bamaiyi, a former army chief, James Danbaba, a former commissioner of police, Colonel Jibril Bala Yakubu, a former Zamfara State military administrator and Rabo Lawal, head of the Aso Rock Villa anti-riot squad, were cleared of all the other charges. He and Sofolahan were, however, left to face the charge of murdering Kudirat. Their case was re-opened in July 2011.

    Following their August testimonies, the trial judge, Justice Mojisola Dada, adjourned the case to November for counsels to both sides to submit their written addresses after she had rejected their position that they had no case to answer. At the November hearing she fixed January 30 for judgment. On that day she found them both guilty and sentenced them to death by hanging. To rub it in even more she had very unkind words to say to each of them. al-Mustapha, she said in effect, was a ruthless enforcer for his principal who “felt obliged to silence any voice against the government of his boss” and felt he was “untouchable.” As for Sofolahan he was, she said, “a gold digger, a Judas Iscariot, who sold his master.”

    Predictably there was much rejoicing in the Southwest and much gloom in the North.

    Equally predictably al-Mustapha appealed. Last Friday, the Appeal Court overturned Justice Dada’s verdict. “There is no evidence,” Justice Pemu reading the court’s judgement said, “that the appellants conspired to murder Kudirat…There is even nothing to show that the appellants had the intention to murder the deceased.”

    The court’s grounds for overturning the Lagos State High Court’s verdicts seemed unassailable. First, the prosecution said it would bring a dozen witnesses against the accused. It brought only four. Second, the testimonies of the two key witnesses were not only contradictory, the two were to later recant their statements because they said they had been bribed and threatened at the same time to testify against the accused. Third, the bullet the prosecution claimed had been extracted from Kudirat’s head was never tendered as exhibit as the prosecution had promised.

    Predictably last Friday’s judgement saw a reversal of roles between al-Mustapha’s sympathisers and those who disliked him. It also left many questions unanswered not least of which is, so who killed Kudirat?

    We may never know the answer. However, what we do know for certain is that vindication or not, al-Mustapha will remain a hero for some and a villain for others. In between there are probably many more who don’t give a damn either way right now.

    It is the opinion of these that al-Mustapha should worry about as he begins a new life after so many years in prison. If, as he said in a BBC Hausa interview last Saturday, he has truly learnt his lesson about “how some people use the judiciary and power against the poor” – a charge he knows all too well he cannot escape as the most powerful chief security officer of a head of state this country has seen – and if, as he also said, he had come to understand his religion well, he is likely to get the sympathy of such people.

    One can only hope that he will not, like many a born-again Muslim or Christian, revert true to type as soon as he gets another opportunity to be in power- something which is not unlikely, especially in a country like ours where public memory is ever so short.

     

     

     

     

     

  • CBN and medical tourism; Kudirat Abiola and Rewane murders: Al Mustapha free?

    Apparently NHIS is recruiting Accenture to assist it in‘re-strategising’. NHIS should note that Accenture will be paid up-front and well, something the NHIS does not do with its partners. Accenture should ask why NHIS delays payment of bills from doctors by up to six months with the attendant opportunities for ‘I-beg-pay-me-now’ chop-chop corruption. Accenture should recommend that NHIS pays within one month of bill receipt. Accenture should recommend that even if there is a dispute on the bills of one or two patients then the rest of the bill should be paid immediately while the disputed bills are being sorted. Doctors, clinics and hospitals cannot survive if their money is ‘NHIS Withheld’ and getting finder’s fee bank interest for someone. Accenture should investigate the approved poor fees chargeable by the medical teams for services rendered. Good services cost good money. That is why NHIS has recruited Accenture. Accenture should recommend that NHIS extends the act and pays its medical [practitioners better.

    Back to the issue of medical tourism. To pay for a N4.8m medical machine we must divide by N1,500/patient = 3,200 patients, a few years work, at a scan charge of N1,500/patient without adding salaries, rent, generator, taxes or Nigeria’s ‘Anti-inflation’ interest rates of 21-25% per annum. The cost of a similar scan per patient in USA is $200 or N30,000 ie. 160 patients would cover the machine cost – a few weeks work. As 7Up says, ‘the difference is clear’-ly against us –Nigerian doctors and professionals. Not every doctor practices in Abuja, or Ikoyi/VI.

    How many times have soldiers used ‘hospitals are mere consulting clinics’ as an excuse for coup plots? Do you know what the sign ‘O/S’? It means ‘out of stock’ and it could mean suffering and death for the patient. How can a hospital not have oxygen at midnight when your child is gasping? The ‘happiest people’ in the world are also the ‘most foolish’- swallowing suffering so easily! Doctors did not create the scenario of medical tourism and doctors cannot solve it. They suffer mentally and are as much victims as the citizen who cannot afford to travel abroad for treatment and has inferior treatment from outofstockitis of the good quality drugs and equipment.

    Do you know the doctor’s pain of knowing what to do and knowing how to do it but being prevented from doing it by a lack of equipment? Even worse is to be told to ‘manage’ with obsolete facilities – a waste of skill. Doctors did not cause medical tourism but they know who did cause it and doctors can diagnose the problem and offer simple treatment. Listen to the professionals’ needs. Those who did cause medical tourism are the self-serving civil servants and politicians who cut and cancel medical budgets for Nigerian citizens and are themselves on frequent medical tourism trips abroad sometimes disguised as official government trips –someone has to pay! Those who cause medical tourism in Nigeria are sitting in CBN making base interbank interest rates –MPR- 12% and approving 21-25% interest rates for commercial banks. Doctors and other medical professionals are often trying their best and failing. Bankers ‘make it’ in Nigeria even as they refuse medical loans. Doctors need tools as the new 21st Century medicine is high-tech and machines are upgraded or changed every few years -except in Nigeria where second hand equipment is mostly our lot. Nigeria usually gets the leftovers, as usual! We do not even fund or carry out adequate research into malaria-our major killer.

    If only Sanusi had announced a new CBN ‘Anti-Medical Tourism Plan’ with special entrepreneurship ‘self-development/self-recognition’ loans and even medical practice development long term 4-5 year 2-5% interest loans to professionals across capital-intensive disciplines professions including Medicine. This would allow doctors in and out of government hospitals and other medical professionals to acquire the life-changing cutting-edge equipment needed to deliver high quality services. Only then will we face the medical and other tourism threats on equal footing– with quality equipment and services at home.

    Remember, every patient would travel if the opportunity arose. This confirms a lack of faith in the system- a systemic failure, not a doctor failure! The Nigerian professional is at an all-round disadvantage –financially, access to new equipment and even professionally as it takes money to travel abroad to train on new equipment –money that is not easily recovered from an NHIS which wants to pay minimally for services rendered and does not countenance or take full cognisance of the changing and rising cost involved in providing those medical services in the field. Add the necessary acquisition of second hand, often rubbish, equipment because medical establishments often cannot afford the newest and the best. This is the long established tokunbo-isation of medical equipment and medicine.

    So Al Mustapha is acquitted, free and riding high in Kano. Will Kudirat Abiola, Alfred Rewane and other Abacha-era victims also be freed and resurrect from their graves so their loved ones can also welcome them with parades, parties and prayers. Will they be reinstated in their own ‘armies? Will the Abacha-era death games begin again? Will the bloodshed during the Abacha regime ever be explained, avenged or apologised for? So who killed them or did they kill themselves? Those who think political murder is an acceptable ‘joke’ or legitimate game plan will pay some way, no matter how many millions have been secreted away.

  • OPC rejects al-Mustapha’s release

    OPC rejects al-Mustapha’s release

    The National Coordinator of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), Otunba Gani Adams, yesterday dissociated his group from the support given to Hamza al-Mustapha by the founder of the group, Dr. Fredrick Fasehun, following his release from prison last week.

    In a statement by the OPC leader, entitled: ‘Revolution beacons’, the group said: “We of the Oodua Republic Front (ORF) hereby distance ourselves from the weighty support thrown behind al-Mustapha, the murderer of the matriarch of democracy Kudirat Abiola. Although we foresaw foul play from the beginning of the hearing, we want to assure all and sundry that believes in justice that the blood of everyone, who was killed in the course of fighting for this democracy, would hunt every son of Yoruba, who believes he can negotiate justice for a plate of Tuwo”.

    Adams said the group distanced itself from the show of shame embarked upon by Dr. Fasehun, whom he said was not representing “our collective decision in this matter.”

    He said: “ The Yoruba are known to be Omoluabi (people with integrity), but in this case, some Yoruba figures should be prepared to explain their role in the deals that released al-Mustapha. They neither represent our opinion nor decision.”

  • Al-Mustapha still in service, says Nigerian Army

    The Nigerian Army have said Major Hamza al-Mustapha, the former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late Head of State, Gen. Ssani Abacha, is still in its service.

    Colonel John Agim, who represented the Director of Army Public Relations, Brig.-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, spoke yesterday at the Joint Security Information Managers media briefing, at the Defence Headquarters in Abuja.

    Agim was responding to a reporter’s question on the fate of Major al-Mustapha, whose death sentence was quashed by the Court of Appeal in Lagos last Friday.

    Agim said: “With regards to Major al-Mustapha’s release, I want to confirm that he is still in the Army. The case is going to be handled by the Army administration in line with the harmonised terms and conditions of service.”

    The former CSO was tried for the alleged murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, wife of the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Bashorun Moshood Abiola.

    Al-Mustapha was in detention for the 15 years the trial lasted.

     

  • al-Mustapha the hero, Kudirat the villain?

    al-Mustapha the hero, Kudirat the villain?

    What a decidedly deleterious end to a 15-year cause; what political, historical and judicial ferment that would emanate from this singular judgment of the Lagos Division of the Appeal Court? To paraphrase Williams Shakespeare, all the elements, including the facts are so mixed (up) in this cause that the heavens would quake at its inglorious finale. If the prosecution was dodgy, the defence was cagey and the bench lackluster in marshalling the majesty of the law. Thus what would have been a landmark pronouncement, a defining moment in Nigeria’s legal history has left us all in a grand quandary that will keep us deliriously busy for a long time yet.

    Hamza al-Mustapha, the loquacious Chief Security Officer (CSO) of the late military head of state, General Sani Abacha was on January 30, 2012, sentenced to death by hanging by the Lagos High Court. He was found guilty of the murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola on June 4, 1996. Kudirat was the wife of Chief M.K.O. Abiola, winner of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election and Chief Abiola was in detention for insisting on his mandate when his wife was assassinated in broad daylight in Lagos. But last Friday, July 12, 2013 that verdict of the lower court was upturned by the appellate court which discharged and acquitted al-Mustapha claiming that it could not find sufficient ground in linking the accused persons with the commission of the crime. Alhaji Lateef Shofolahan, an aide of Kudirat accused of masterminding the killing was also let off the hook.

    While Hardball will allow learned folks and judicial experts to chew the legal curds of this intricate matter, it needs noting that the appellate judge was particularly scurrilous and disparaging of the 326-page judgment of the lower court. In what sounded like throwing of tantrums, the appellate judge said: “It was preposterous that a 326-page judgment was only concerned in securing a conviction at all cost..” It is hard to see the need for so much harsh words and so much berating in upturning the position of the trial court. If the lead appellate judge showed little verbal felicity in discharging her duties what do we make of the Kano State Governor, Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, who described al-Mustapha as a hero?

    “Hamza al-Mustapha was taken away in 1999 in tattered clothes and in chains under a pitiable situation; but today, he has returned a hero. We have always insisted that he was unjustly held. We felt concerned and decided to be part of justice.” It is curious though not explained, how the governor became ‘part of justice,’ but Kwankwaso’s remark was unguarded, insensitive and uncalled for, especially if we consider al-Mustapha’s antecedents as exposed during the trial and at the Oputa Panel. Though the former Abacha henchman has been acquitted of the death of Kudirat Abiola, he was in the thick of the intrigues surrounding that death and other deaths and near-death like Pa Alfred Rewane, Alhaja Suliat Adedeji and Chief Alex Ibru, to name a few.

    Have we forgotten so soon that of season murderous impunity when terror stalked the land with an especial swagger. al-Mustapha was at the helm of that official terror machine and he can neither be acquitted of nor absolved from that. Leaders must show particular sensitivity in public speech. The law of the land may have afforded al-Mustapha a reprieve but the fact is that Kudirat Abiola remains dead, murdered in cold blood on a Lagos highway. Her children are entitled to justice and Kwankwaso, if he were a leader he was truly meant to be, ought to be sensitive to that fact. Finally, no country can deign to make progress if it does not know its heroes and heroines. M.K.O. Abiola died in the struggle for democratic ideals in Nigeria, his wife was murdered, his businesses were ruined and there has not been restitution yet; to describe the chief suspect in the gruesome drama as a hero is for want of another word, regrettable.

     

  • Why I supported Al- Mustaspha’s release – Fasheun

    Why I supported Al- Mustaspha’s release – Fasheun

    The Founder of the Odua People’s Congress (OPC), Dr Frederick Fasheun, on Monday in Kano advanced reasons on why he supported the release of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, the former Chief Security officer of the late head of state, Gen. Sani Abacha.

    The OPC leader, who explained his reasons to the Yoruba community in Kano, said that it was based on his personal conviction that the Yoruba race is detribalized and always in the forefront for fight against injustice.

    Fasheun, who accompanied Al-Mustapha to Kano shortly after his release from the Kirikiri Maximum Prisons last Friday said he threw his weight behind the freedom, granted the former CSO because he was exonerated on the issue by a competent court of the land.

    The OPC founder said that all patriotic Yoruba race should be grateful to God that nothing happened to Al-Mustapha throughout his 15 years in Kiikiri Prison, pointing out that all he was doing was to demonstrate to the world that “the Yorubas are detribalised and always stand by the truth and for justice to prevail.”