| Al-Mustapha appears
in court
By OLA AGBAJE
Friday, July 2, 2004
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•Al-Mustapha
Photo:Sun News Publishing |
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Three months after he was held over alleged security breach,
former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late General Sani
Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha was Thursday brought to an
Ikeja High Court amidst tight security.
His appearance immediately drew fears from relatives and sympathisers
who have been anxious about his fate since he was taken into
custody by the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI)
for interrogation over the coup allegation.
Justice Joseph Oyewole trying Mustapha and four others for
the February 1996 attempt on the life of the Guardian Publisher,
Alex Ibru, had ordered the DMI to produce him in court Thursday.
As he alighted from an unmarked grey Peugeot 504 Salon car
around 11.00 am and spotting cream colour night gown with
brown leather slippers, excited relations and sympathisers
made frantic effort to embrace him.
However, they met a brick wall from the plain clothes security
operatives who formed a ring around Mustapha.
In a bid to embrace Mustapha, a co-accused in the attempted
murder trial before Justice Joseph Oyewole, former Commissioner
of Police, Lagos, James Danbaba, made a daring move to break
the security barrier around him, however the move proved near
fatal as he was expertly elbowed which left him dazed and
sprawling on the floor.
Unable to touch their idol, some close relations and sympathisers
were openly crying and wailing, while Mustapha managed to
wave at them in a manner that seemed to console them that
he was okay.
Mustapha, Danbaba, Lt-Gen, Ishaya Bamaiyi, Col Jubrin Bala
Yakubu and CSP Rabo Lawal are facing criminal prosecution
for their alleged roles in the February, 1996 attempt on the
life of the Guardian Publisher, Alex Ibru.
Attempts by the defence counsel, Ricky Tarfa (SAN) and Olalekan
Ojo to further stall the trial was refused by the court as
Justice Oyewole dismissed the two applications seeking for
an order to stay further proceedings in the trial, pending
the determination of appeals filed at both the court of Appeal
and Supreme Court by Bamaiyi and Mustapha.
The court eventually commenced the trial as promised at the
last adjourned date after a stiff opposition from the defence
counsel who argued that the court should not rush the trial
to avoid a possible miscarriage of justice.
However, the prosecutor, the Commissioner of Justice and Attorney
General of Lagos State, Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) faulted
the position of the both Tarfa and Ojo, counsel to Bamaiyi
and Mustapha respectively.
Osinbajo drew the attention of the court to the history of
the case which he said dated back to 1999 without any appreciable
progress made. He urged the court not to allow endless applications
being filed by the accused persons calculated at frustrating
the trial to derail it.
"I think these endless applications must stop because
it violently attack the very concept of justice. The interest
of justice is not that of the accused alone. It must also
serve the interest of the victims, some of whom have been
maimed for life. It must also serve the interest of the public.
Eventually Osinbajo was asked to call his first witness, David
Udi to the witness box around 2.40 pm to signal the commencement
of the trial.
Led in evidence by Osinbajo, Udi identified himself as a Security
Officer with the Federal Palace Hotel (FPH), Victoria Island.
He said he had been working at the stable of the five-star
hotel since 1993.
At this juncture, Justice Oyewole adjourned proceeding and
fixed July 5, 2004 for the continuation of the trial.
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