The Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal Friday discharged and acquitted the former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, over his role in the death of Kudirat Abiola.
Al-Mustapha had challenged the death sentence handed him by Justice Mojisola Dada of the Lagos High Court.
UPDATE:
Hamza Al-Mustapha and Alhaji Lateef Sofolahan, an aide to Kudirat, had appealed their convictions and death sentence.
In a unanimous judgment delivered by Justice Rita Pemu, the Justices on the panel, Justices Aminat Augie and Fatimah Akinbanmi, agreed that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt, that the notorious Hamza Al-Mustapha and Shofolahan, participated in the complicity that led to the gruesome assassination of Kudirat Abiola, the wife of the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 Presidential election, Late Moshood Kolawole Olawale Abiola.
Kudirat was assassinated in 1996 in Ikeja, Lagos.
In its assessment of the verdict of the High Court, the justice averred that the lower court failed to diligently evaluate the evidence presented by the prosecution before convicting Hamza and Shofolahan, and passing a death sentence verdict on them.
Both men were thus discharged and acquitted.
Source: THE WILL
Thanks
