SUPREME COURT DISMISSES KUDIRAT ABIOLA MURDER CASE AGAINST MAJOR HAMZA AL-MUSTAPHA
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By: Fasasi Hammad
The Supreme Court has officially dismissed the murder trial of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (rtd), the former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to late Military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, in connection with the assassination of late politician Alhaja Kudirat Abiola.
Kudirat Abiola, wife of the late businessman and presumed June 12, 1993 presidential election winner, Chief MKO Abiola, was killed in Lagos during the nationwide unrest that followed the annulment of the election. She had been a persistent advocate for the reversal of the annulment by the military government.
On Thursday, a five-member panel of Supreme Court Justices, led by Justice Uwani Aba-Aji, brought an end to the trial, which had been pending for years. The proceedings had been scheduled for the Lagos State government to reopen the case, but no legal representation appeared, and no filings had been made since 2014, when the court granted Lagos permission to reinstate the matter.
Represented by Senior Advocate of Nigeria Paul Daudu, Al-Mustapha’s legal team informed the court that Lagos had failed to act on the 2014 order, including filing a notice of appeal. Daudu argued that the state had effectively abandoned the case, urging the Supreme Court to dismiss it.
Justice Aba-Aji noted that Lagos had been given ample time—over nine years—to pursue the appeal, and expressed concern over the lack of communication or representation from the state government. The Supreme Court unanimously agreed, ruling that the state had lost interest in the matter, and dismissed the case, recorded as SC/CR/45/2014. A second related case, SC/CR/6/2014, was also dismissed for the same reason.
The case traces back to 2014 when the Supreme Court granted Lagos State permission to challenge the July 12, 2013 Court of Appeal ruling, which had discharged and acquitted Al-Mustapha. At the time, the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, ordered Lagos to file a notice of appeal within 30 days.
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Al-Mustapha, along with Mohammed Abacha and Lateef Shofolahan, had originally been convicted by a Lagos High Court on January 30, 2012, for conspiracy to commit murder and the murder of Kudirat Abiola, and sentenced to death by hanging. However, the Court of Appeal overturned the high court verdict in 2013, citing insufficient evidence to uphold the conviction.
Despite Lagos State’s repeated attempts to reopen the case and challenge the Court of Appeal ruling, the Supreme Court concluded that the state had failed to take necessary action, effectively ending all legal proceedings against Al-Mustapha in connection with the murder.
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