In general, most citizens of Nigeria are peace-loving and
law-abiding. Although we actually know better, for the sake of peace most of us
have accepted that we are genuinely being protected by the laws of the land.
For better or for worse, we have accepted that we are not
supposed to take the laws into our own hands, and that where crimes have been
committed that affect our lives and interests, the right thing to do is to wait
for the law enforcement agencies and the judiciary to step in, investigate,
apprehend the law breakers and punish them appropriately…
That we have such lofty and possibly misplaced expectations does
not, however, mean that we are fools, and that we should be taken for a ride by
those who are supposed to protect us and ensure that justice is meted out in
appropriate cases.
Without doubt, it is an open secret today that a series of
sinister events have cumulatively piled up to shake whatever faith most of us
have about living in a supposedly orderly society in which the administration
of justice is to be left in the hands of the government, the law enforcement
agencies and the judiciary.
Matters have now reached a point where there is no
alternative but to conclude that somebody, somewhere, is making fun of us..
. Manifestly, the Nigerian version of justice is not simply the
proverbial blindfolded lady depicted in front of court buildings all over the
world, but a wicked, blind, dumb and willfully deaf evil step mother!
The recent rigmarole that has culminated in the discharge and
acquittal of Major Hamza Al Mustapha of the charge of having masterminded the
brutal killing of Mrs. Kudirat Abiola can probably be best described as a
deliberate affront to all notions of common sense and reasoned analysis.
The most astonishing aspect of this revolting episode in our
national history is that the central figure in the whole affair has suddenly
been transformed before our very eyes from a supposed villain to an innocent
victim and folk hero who has allegedly been unjustly and illegally detained for
14 years as a result of the machinations of the Yoruba ethnic group as a
whole….
If the media are to be believed, Major al Mustapha has
reportedly received a hero’s welcome in Kano and Yobe states, with some high
ranking local authorities playing to the gallery by presiding over tumultuous
public receptions during which Alodious persecution by unnamed foes.
Most astonishingly, our villain turned hero has in the process
acquired an 80 year old spokesman/bodyguard/overnight arrangee foster father of
Yoruba extraction who claims to be protecting some ill-defined Yoruba interests
by taking the side of the alleged murderer of a Yoruba lady, going so far as to
actually rejoice with him at the current turn of events!
However, no matter what the voluntarily blind and deaf (but
apparently not dumb!) justices of the Appeal Court may have decided in their
infinite wisdom, many questions remain unanswered:
First of all, what are the facts that lie behind the protracted
legal skirmishes that culminated in the incarceration of Al- Mustapha and the
main other accused suspect for all of 14 years? Could anyone have forgotten so
soon that this peculiar situation arose because the highly paid legal counsel
retained by Al-Mustapha and his fellow accused successfully employed all manner
of legal challenges and procedural ruses to ensure that the case kept being
postponed and started all over again, year after year for 14 whole years?
And why should Al Mustapha and his new found
advocate/bodyguard/arrangee foster father now turn round to mock all
rightthinking Nigerian citizens by claiming that the long delay in delivering
judgement was the result of a deliberate decision by the Lagos State government
to keep Al Mustapha and his co-accused unjustly in detention?
Another question for all to ponder: Is Hamza Al Mustapha the
only soldier to have served under the orders of General Sani Abachi, the
reclusive dictator who presided over one of the most oppressive governments in
the history of our nation? Isn’t it curious that Al Mustapha’s name (and Al
Mustapha’s name only!) keeps popping up like a recurrent decimal in several
different cases of murder or attempted murder that took place during the
infamous reign of General Abacha?
For those with a short memory, let us recall a few of the most
spectacular of these murder cases:
Among those crimes with which Al Mustapha’s name has allegedly
been persistently mentioned, there was the murder of Chief Alfred Rewane, for
which the subsequent police investigation was transformed into a Charlie
Chaplinesque comedy that amused no one…
However, it was widely whispered in informed circles that a
certain former state governor was not unconnected with the murder, and that the
said former governor was allegedly believed to have been one of Al Mustapha’s
henchmen at the time…
Then there was the attempted assassination of late Pa Adesanya
around Sandgrouse market in central Lagos. There was also the attempted murder
of late Chief Alex Ibru, the publisher of the ‘Guardian’ newspaper in an ambush
between the Ikoyi and Victoria Island districts of Lagos. The quick thinking of
his driver saved him.
To be
continued
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