MAJOR Hamza Al-Mustapha, the Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late General Sani Abacha, on Thursday, concluded his evidence-in-chief at a Lagos High Court, presided over by Justice Mojisola Dada, maintaining his innocence, saying the various allegations against him were completely untrue.
Al-Mustapha, who has been in custody since 1998, began his defence, on Monday over the allegation against him by the Lagos State government that he conspired with some people to kill Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, wife of the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief M.K.O Abiola.
At the resumption of proceedings on Thursday, a video clip of the visit of some South-West leaders to the Presidential Villa was shown inside the courtroom.
The clip showed the late Pa Abraham Adesanya in the company of the late Chief Bola Ige, who was dressed in native attire and other people in front of the office of the head of state at the Presidential Villa.
The late Afenifere leader was captured in the video clip responding to questions from journalists.
In his response to some of the questions, he said, “there is no agreement that has been reached. The new position is that the government of national unity will still be there except that it is not Abiola that will head the government.”
He stated further that, “There is no concession as far as we are concerned; we still want a government of national unity and a sovereign national conference.”
Curiously, when asked about Abiola’s death, Pa Adesanaya said, ‘’I wouldn’t know.’’
After the clip was shown, Al-Mustapha’s counsel, Olalekan Ojo, continued with the examination of his client with regard to what he knew about the incident.
The questions and answers that ensued between the duo are reproduced below:
Ojo: Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, you also watched the clip that has been played. From that clip where was the venue?
Al-Mustapha: That was the front of the office of the president, at the Villa.
Ojo: Yesterday, you mentioned some South-West elders. You also watched it; can you identify those that you have watched in the clip?
Al-Mustapha: I obviously do not know the names. The rest are leaders from the South-West led by Abraham Adesanya.
Ojo: This clip, does it relate to the departure or arrival at the Villa?
Al-Mustapha: This clip we just watched was the departure of the VIPs from the Villa. I decided to capture it in view of what I knew beneath.
Ojo: Do you know the government functionary with whom the VIPs had the meeting you referred to?
Al-Mustapha: They were hosted by the Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, and the National Security Adviser, Abdullahi Mohammed. There were others but I decided to stay outside to do my handing over.
Ojo: You said that some persons, including PW2 (Sergeant Rogers) were sent to you while you were in Enugu. Yesterday, you gave evidence in relation to a letter you wrote to Chief Bola Ige when you appeared at the Oputa panel. Through whom did you send the letter?
Al-Mustapha: I sent it through my counsel on the 5th of July, 2001, when I was at the Oputa Panel. The late Clement Akpamgbo was one of my counsel.
Ojo: What issues did you raise with Bola Ige in the letter?
Al-Mustapha was about answering the question, when the judge drew the attention of his client to the fact that no copy of the letter was before the court.
At this juncture, Ojo tendered a copy of the letter and asked that it be admitted as an exhibit by the court.
In his argument on the need for the letter to be admitted, the counsel disclosed that the letter showed that the witness had been consistently saying most of the things he had said since he opened his defence on Monday.
Also, he said that admitting the letter would further corroborate the content of the video clip. According to him, in view of the death of Chief Ige, it has become impossible to serve a notice to produce the original copy of the letter on the person who had the custody of the letter.
However, in opposing the admissibility of the letter, the Solicitor General of Lagos State, who led the prosecution team, Lawal Pedro (SAN), noted that the testimony of the witness had not passed the test of the Evidence Act.
He said it would have been a different matter if there had been an acknowledgment of the letter by its alleged recipient.
In her ruling on the admissibility of the letter, Justice Dada declared that the document was relevant under Section 10 of the Evidence Act.
The judge said it was premature to conclude that the document was forged.
Justice Dada, while admitting the letter as an exhibit stated that, “I think the interest of justice will be better served in admitting the evidence.”
After the admission of the letter, Ojo continued the examination of Al-Mustapha.
Ojo: Where did you write the letter?
Al-Mustapha: At the Oputa Panel in Abuja.
Ojo: What do you have to say about your experience when you were brought to Lagos?
Al-Mustapha: We were stoned when we arrived at the airport. We were in chains. The arrangement was to kill us. The Black Maria that we were in was kept under the scorching sun.
Ojo: The arrangement to get you killed was between who and who?
Al-Mustapha: Between Nuhu Ribadu and Mike Okiro.
Ojo: During the four months interval that PW2 made his second statement, in whose custody was he?
Al-Mustapha: He was in the custody of the SSS in whose authority was the SIP
Ojo: When he was there, do you know any facts relating to the emergence of his second statement?
Al-Mustapha: Yes, I do. The SSS and the SIP organised several confrontations and that was when inducements was going on. He complained of torture and President Obasanjo directed the SSS to take good care of him. That was the time he was visited several times and induced. It was on that basis that our statement was tailored to his.
Ojo: When you were shown his statement, what was your reaction?
Al-Mustapha: My Lord, I denied it and my statement can attest to the denial
Ojo: Can you tell the court the nature of the protest of PW and what led to it?
Al-Mustapha: At the Force Headquarters where I was being kept, I used to make statements on a daily basis. That was the time I was tailored to toe the line of PW2. PW2 complained of being kept in an inhuman condition. The presidency, under Obasanjo, blamed the then Director General of the SSS, Kayode Are, for his complaints.
Ojo: What other complaints did the PW2 have against Kayode Are?
Al-Mustapha: He complained of the inability of Kayode Are to fulfil his promises. PW2’s wife contested and protested against her husband’s condition. Obasanjo then ordered that there should be an adjustment and meeting up with the promises.
Ojo: What are these promises?
Al-Mustapha: Those the SIP discussed with me at that material time included the job promised to the wife, money promised to him and his inhuman condition.
Ojo: The case against you is that you conspired with others to murder Kudirat Abiola in June 1996. What is your reaction to this allegation?
Al-Mustapha: It’s completely untrue. It was a script. I was earmarked to be eliminated. If I had conspired, the security operatives would have given evidences.
The prosecution is expected to cross-examine Major Al-Mustapha on August 8.
Meanwhile, A Lagos-based lawyer; Mr Femi Falana, on Thursday, said the bribery allegation leveled against the former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige and the leader of Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group; Afenifere, Pa Abraham Adesanya, by the Chief Security Officer to the late Head of state, Major al-Mustapha over the killings of Chief M.K.O. Abiola was diversionary tactics.
Making this known in an interview monitored on a Lagos-based television station, Falana said there was no correlation between the period that the incident happened and the time al-Mustapha was referring to.
According to him, incidentally in 2001, when Justice Oputa commission of enquiry was sitting, Chief Bola Ige was the Attorney-General before he was later killed on the December 23.
He said a trial was already going on over the attempted murder of Chief Adesanya, which, again, had been traced to Major Al-Mustapha.
“It was a ploy to divert the attention from a case in court and pollute the minds of the people from believing that what he was saying is the truth. There is no link, considering the period being referred to,” Falana said.
Also reacting, former EFCC chairman, Nuhu Ribadu, said the claim by al-Mustapha was false and “perhaps as invented to help build a constituency of concern and sympathy for his case.”
Ribadu said for the records, he was the lead state prosecutor (not escort officer) in all the cases before it was handed over to the Lagos State government.