The Lagos State Government has
asked the Supreme Court to quash the judgment of a Lagos Court of Appeal that
acquitted Maj. Hamza al-Mustapha, Chief Security Officer to the late Head of
State, General Sani Abacha and Alhaji Lateef Shofolahan in the murder of Alhaja
Kudirat Abiola.
Lagos had prayed the apex court
to uphold the death sentence awarded against Mustapha and Shofolahan by Justice
Mojisola Dada of the Lagos State High Court on January 30, 2012.
The state government filed a
notice of appeal seeking vacation of the decision of the appellate court on 10
different grounds.
It was gathered that the state
Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, Adeniji Kazeem, signed the notice
of appeal, seeking the “setting aside the judgment of the court below.”
Lagos argued that the testimonies
of its star witnesses, Barnabas Jabila, also known as Sergeant Rogers, and
Mohammed Abdul, who had confessed to their roles in the murder, were detailed
and consistent.
It claimed that the
contradictions in the witnesses’ testimonies were not material enough to
warrant the decision of the Court of Appeal to disregard their entire evidence.
Aside, the state government
argued that the appeal court “erred when it determined that there were material
contradictions that rendered the testimony of Barnabas Jabila inconsistent and
unreliable.”
The state government insisted that
Barnabas Jabila, in his testimony before the Lagos State High Court, was
consistent and that the details supplied by him were “not materially
controverted.”
Lagos faulted the decision of the
Court of Appeal for failing to take into cognisance the testimony of Mohammed
Abdul and argued that the appellate court “erred in law when it held that there
were material contradictions that rendered the testimony of Mohammed Abdul
unreliable.”
It said Mohammed Abdul gave
graphic and detailed evidence of the conspiracy to and murder of Alhaja Kudirat
Abiola, thereby contending that the appellate court erred in discharging and
acquitting Mustapha and Shofolahan.
After a 12-year long trial before
the Lagos State High Court, Justice Dada sentenced both Mustapha and Shofolahan
to death on January 30, 2012 for complicity in the murder of Kudirat.
In a lead judgement by Justice
Amina Augie, however, the Court of Appeal in Lagos discharged and acquitted
both Mustapha and Shofolahan for lack of credible evidence precisely on July
12, 2013
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