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B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
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Al-Mustapha asks court to stay trial pending appeal
FORMER Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late Gen. Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, yesterday beat a familiar path in his long-drawn attempted murder trial asking for a stay of further proceedings at the court.
The former CSO is standing trial for the February 2, 1996 attempt on the life of The Guardian's publisher, Mr. Alex Ibru. The other accused persons include former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi and former Zamfara State Military Administrator, Col. Jubril Bala Yakubu. Others are former Oyo and Lagos States Police Commissioner, Mr. James Danbaba and Chief Superintendent of Police Mohammed Rabo Lawal.
The prosecution team has in several occasions accused the defence of stalling the trial through various means.
Al-Mustapha yesterday asked the trial judge, Justice Joseph Oyewole, to halt the proceedings pending the determination of his motion before the Court of Appeal, Lagos.
This is sequel to the application the former CSO filed at the appellate court, alleging bias in the ruling delivered by Justice Oyewole in an earlier application he brought to disqualify the judge from trying his case.
Al-Mustapha's counsel, Mr. Olalekan Ojo, while moving the application yesterday, said that his clients no longer had confidence in the court.
Reviewing the appeal lodged at the higher court, Ojo said that the` trial judge was being partial, incompetent and unfair with the matter. Al-Mustapha is therefore asking the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Augustine Ade-Alabi, to assign the matter to another judge.
Arguing the motion, Ojo noted that the trial court had the discretion to grant the relief sought. He further submitted that the court had the discretion to either grant or refuse stay of further proceedings in the matter.
Ojo itemised the principles of law espoused in his submission as:
The questions he formulated for the court to answer are:
He said: "It is my respectful submission that in this case, there is a pending valid appeal. In law, an applicant for either stay of proceedings or prosecution is enjoined to demonstrate the substantiality and the fundamentality of the nature of the issue raised in the appeal supporting his assertion with the authority of Agba V Okogbue 1988, 4NWLR, pt. 91 pp747, 753 by Kolawole JCA, adding that if a court is found either on appeal to be impartial, that is a matter which goes to the competence of the adjudicator."
He continued: "It is my further submission that an appeal is a continuation of the issue agitated before the trial court. In other words, the issue whether or not the court should be disqualified has been taken before the appellate court for their determination."
In a way of posing a question to the court, Ojo queried: "What if the appeal succeeds after the trial had been concluded, the third accused person (Al-Mustapha) does not want to take that risk of the court to continue with the case when there is an appeal."
In his reply to Ojo's submission, the state counsel and deputy Director of Public Prosecution, Mrs. Olabisi Odugbesan, urged the court to take judicial notice of the series of appeals already filed in the case, adding that the accused should desist from filing further appeals and submit himself for speedy trial.
Odugbesan also urged the court not to look at the application in isolation but in entirety to determine its merits and balance of probity.
Contending further, the state counsel said that there was no valid appeal for the court to grant a stay and prayed the court to discountenance this application.
Justice Oyewole adjourned ruling on the matter to Tuesday, October 5.
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