|
Al-Mustapha: time to set this canary free
By Mohammed Haruna
Newsdiaryonline Tue Sep 6,2011
Major Hamza al-Mustapha, the Chief Security Officer of the late
Head of State, General Sani Abacha, may not be most people’s
idea of a hero, given the widespread belief that, in the words
of the Nigerian Tribune
(September 2), he was “the pointman of a regime which debased
human dignity and abused human rights.” Even then his 12-year
incarceration, mainly over the murder of Alhaja Kudirat, wife of
late Chief MKO Abiola, seems to have attracted much public
sympathy to him.
Obviously this public sympathy is not due to the length of his
trial alone. In addition, the man has apparently been a good
student – master is probably the more accurate word – of
propaganda. This much is obvious from the way he seems to have
succeeded in diverting public attention away from the charge he
faces since the resumption of his trial last month.
That his claim of a grand conspiracy to bury “June 12” by
hanging the murder of Kudirat on his neck - or by even killing
him - because he knew too much about the conspiracy is so much
drivel should be pretty obvious from the fact that his trial was
never meant to be secret. On the contrary it couldn’t have been
more open. As for killing him he, of all people, should know, as
a self-styled spy-master, that doing so after he’d already said
so much would have amounted to shutting the gate after the horse
had bolted away.
All of which makes it truly amazing how many otherwise sensible
and intelligent people seem to believe so much in his conspiracy
theory that they apparently think behind his smokescreen there
must be a fire.
People, for example, like the editors at
Newswatch, the
otherwise respectable pioneer of weekly newsmagazine journalism
in the Nigeria. In its August 11 edition the magazine ran a
cover story on the resumed hearing of the Kudirat case before
the Lagos High Court, Igboshere, on August 1. In the story it
said former head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, “...is
said to be working hard to ensure he (al-Mustapha) remains
behind bars.”
Sources, it said, “told
Newswatch that Abubakar allegedly visited Lagos on July 12,
and held a meeting with Bola Tinubu, former governor of Lagos
State, and Hafsat Abiola, daughter of the late Abiola, in
furtherance of this objective.”
I don’t know about Hafsat, but I know
Newswatch did not
talk to Abubakar to verify the allegation. Chances are it
also did not talk to
Asiwaju Tinubu. However, it didn’t even have to talk to
Abubakar to see that it was unlikely he would sit in the same
room with Hafsat to discuss anything when it was well-known that
she had accused him in an American court, not too long ago, of
killing her father.
As for Tinubu, Abubakar did indeed once sit down with him to
discuss al-Mustapha’s trial. But this was when the
Asiwaju was governor.
And, far from asking for al-Mustapha to be jailed, Abubakar’s
plea was for his release or speedy trial. Tinubu, I can confirm,
told Abubakar quite rightly that it would be politically
suicidal at the time for him to enter a
nolle for the accused given the prevailing sentiments in his
constituency over the murder of Kudirat.
Two weeks ago when I first wrote on this al-Mustapha’s
repackaged old song, I concluded that his conspiracy story was
essentially fiction dressed as fact. However, I did not
elaborate. Instead, I said the elaboration was a subject matter
for another day.
Last weekend the press reported Abubakar as responding to
questions from reporters about al-Mustapha’s allegations during
his Sallah visit to Government House, Minna, in the company of
General Babangida, with an answer that he was preparing his
response and they will hear from him at the appropriate time.
This, I thought, was an opportunity for the elaboration I
promised. Hence this piece.
“I am,” Abubakar reportedly said, “not making any political
statement; when a general prepares for battle, he makes
programme and plan. My plan is on and you will hear of it at the
right time.”
Reading those remarks I thought the general misspoke not only
because generals don’t do battles with majors even in an army
like Nigeria’s where, as a former army chief, General Salihu
Ibrahim, once said, “Anything goes.” The former head of state
also misspoke because one needed little more than the most
casual attention to the way al-Mustapha had turned himself into
a chatterbox to realize that he had, by talking too much, since
given his game away.
“Many officers,” he told the Lagos State High Court at his
resumed hearing, “wanted to become Head of State, but God gave
me the wisdom and I assisted General Abdulsalami Abubakar to
become president. But this is the price I am paying for my
loyalty and assisting him.” So, there.
What al-Mustapha did not add, but what was inadvertently
revealed in an interview by his former orderly, Sergeant Kyari
Gadzama, in last week’s Sunday Sun, was that he probably fancied
himself among those “many officers” worthy of succeeding his
departed boss.
Al-Mustapha, said the still loyal Gadzama, “could have taken
over power at that time because he was eminently qualified by
the Military Act...But he was not greedy and he chose to
hand-over to General Abdulsalami Abubakar. Nobody could have
challenged him if he had taken over power. Now he is paying for
his loyalty.”
Clearly al-Mustapha suffers from delusions of grandeur; among
others, the delusion that Abubakar, as the greatest beneficiary
of his presumed grace to anoint a head of state after his boss
died, owed him a huge debt for life. However, far from returning
his grace, Abubakar, in al-Mustapha’s self-delusion, pretended
he was helpless to do anything about his trial for the murder of
Kudirat. Worse, the general even wanted him jailed for it!
The role al-Mustapha played as Abacha’s CSO in the
dehumanization of President Olusegun Obasanjo as a coup convict
under Abacha’s gulag, is well known. So also is Obasanjo’s well
known vengefulness in spite of his self-declaration as a
born-again Christian upon his release from prison in 1998. To
expect that anyone, even Abubakar who played a vital role in
Obasanjo’s return literally from hell to glory and power, could
stop Obasanjo from getting his pound of flesh once he became
president in May 1999 was like expecting hell to freeze over.
It was therefore not surprising that in September 1999, barely
three months into office, he gave the go ahead for al-Mustapha
and several others, including Sergeant Barnabas Jabila Mshelia,
aka Sgt Rogers, the alleged marksman in several alleged
extra-judicial killings under Abacha, to be prosecuted for
sundry crimes including the murder of Kudirat.
Sgt Rogers soon became the star State witness against the
others. It eventually transpired that Rogers was never tried for
any crime. Instead he was surreptitiously recalled back to army
duty in 2005, possibly earlier.
This led to widespread public bewilderment and suspicions that
the trial of al-Mustapha and Co. was, to begin with, more
political than a drive for justice. The bewilderment and
suspicions have been fuelled further by the fact that all except
al-Mustapha have since been discharged by the courts.
Al-Mustapha, as I said at the beginning of this piece, is hardly
most people’s idea of a hero. Certainly he isn’t mine. But then
even a villain deserves speedy trial and al-Mustapha’s has been
anything but speedy.
There are lawyers like Professor Yemi Osibajo, SAN, who say
al-Mustapha has only himself to blame for the delay because of
his antics in court, among which was his allegation that a judge
in the case had asked for a 10 million Naira bribe to set him
free. This is not to mention the innumerable adjournments he’d
asked for; 49 at the last count, the senior lawyer said in an
interview with the Daily
Trust (May 11).
Osibajo should know if only because for six years he had
personally prosecuted the case as one time attorney general of
Lagos State in which the murder of Kudirat took place.
Even then 12 years seems a long time to try anyone for
conspiracy to murder. It’s time the courts set him free or
convicted him so that, his antics notwithstanding, he may
quickly be granted a presidential pardon having languished in
jail long after all his other co-accused for the conspiracy to
murder Kudirat, among other crimes, have been discharged.
An inauspicious
August-By
Mohammed Haruna
|
