{"id":125160,"date":"2026-01-22T16:32:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T15:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=125160"},"modified":"2026-01-22T16:32:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T15:32:20","slug":"kudirat-abiola-murder-supreme-court-throws-out-case-against-al-mustapha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/kudirat-abiola-murder-supreme-court-throws-out-case-against-al-mustapha\/","title":{"rendered":"Kudirat Abiola Murder: Supreme Court Throws Out Case Against Al-Mustapha"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">By Oscar Okhifo<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the long-running murder case of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, bringing to a close all legal efforts to revive the prosecution of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (retd), a former Chief Security Officer to late military ruler, General Sani Abacha.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In a unanimous decision, the five-member panel ruled that Lagos State had effectively abandoned its appeal against Al-Mustapha\u2019s acquittal, having taken no legal action for over nine years.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0The court described the inaction as a clear demonstration of the state\u2019s lack of interest in pursuing the case.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Kudirat Abiola, the wife of Chief MKO Abiola, the presumed winner of Nigeria\u2019s June 12, 1993 presidential election, was assassinated in Lagos on June 4, 1996, amid nationwide protests over the annulment of the election results.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0Her murder remains one of the most infamous political assassinations in Nigeria\u2019s history.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Delivering the ruling, Justice Uwani Aba-Aji criticized the Lagos State Government for its \u201cinexcusable\u201d delay, noting that the Supreme Court had in 2014 granted the state permission to reopen the case and file an appeal within 30 days, a deadline it failed to meet.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Counsel to Al-Mustapha, Mr Paul Daudu (SAN), told the court that Lagos State neither filed a notice of appeal nor took any step to implement the court\u2019s order for over nine years, despite being given 30 days to do so in 2014.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Justice Aba-Aji confirmed from court records that Lagos State was duly served with hearing notices but neither appeared in court nor offered any explanation for its absence.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The court held that nine years was more than sufficient time to file the required processes, adding that the conduct of the appellant showed a clear lack of interest in pursuing the matter.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Consequently, the appeal marked SC\/CR\/45\/2014 was dismissed, while a related appeal, SC\/CR\/6\/2014, was also struck out on the same grounds.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The court also noted that Lagos State had been granted special permission in 2014 to appeal out of time against the July 12, 2013 judgment of the Court of Appeal, which had acquitted Al-Mustapha due to insufficient and unreliable evidence.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0Despite this rare\u00a0 opportunity, the state still failed to act.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">At the trial level, a Lagos High Court had on January 30, 2012, sentenced Al-Mustapha, Mohammed Abacha, and Lateef Shofolahan to death by hanging for conspiracy and murder.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0However, the Court of Appeal overturned the convictions in 2013, citing weak evidence, and ordered their\u00a0 release.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">With Thursday\u2019s ruling, the Supreme Court has effectively brought a close to the decades-long legal battle, ending all attempts to revive the prosecution nearly 30 years after Kudirat Abiola\u2019s assassination.<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Oscar Okhifo The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the long-running murder case of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, bringing to a close all legal efforts to revive the prosecution of Major&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":125161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kudirat Abiola Murder: Supreme 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