Al-Mustapha faults prosecution’s ‘circumstantial evidence’

Friday, 11 November 2011 02:41

Al-Mustapha faults prosecution’s ‘circumstantial evidence’

Written by  Ade Adeso

Hamza al-Mustaphathenationonlineng.net

Major Hamza al-Mustapha, on Thursday, said the prosecution evidence for proving his culpability in the murder of Kudirat, wife of the acclaimed winner of June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief MKO Abiola, was baseless.

Al-Mustapha, former Chief Security Officer to the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, along with Lateef Shofolahan, is facing charges of conspiracy and the murder of Kudirat, at a Lagos High Court in Igbosere.

The prosecution, led by Lawal Pedro (SAN), said the prosecution had, “by circumstantial evidence proved the guilt of the defendants.”

Pedro urged the court  to “take judicial notice” of the fact that the accused persons committed the offences of conspiracy and the murder during “the reign of the late dictator Gen. Sani Abacha, when all opposition to his rule were silenced and crushed.”

Justice Mojisola Dada, fixed January 30, 2012 for judgement in the case.

The prosecution had alleged that al-Mustapha ordered the killing of Kudirat, who was shot in the street of Lagos, on June 4, 1996.

Pedro, while adopting his 34-page final written address, at the close of the trial on Thursday, urged the court to convict the two accused persons as charged.

Al-Mustapha’s lawyer, Mr. Olalekan Ojo, while adopting his own 112-page written address, said the prosecution’s evidence was not supported by law.

He said what the prosecution asked the court to take judicial notice of was strange and had “criminal imputation” which had not been proved.

He said “inviting the court to take such judicial notice” was a desperation not supported by law.

Ojo urged the court to acquit and discharge his clients,  as the evidence given by the prosecution’s two principal witnesses were unreliable and incredible, having been tainted by contradictions.

He said the two witnesses – Sgt. Barnabas Jabila (Sgt. Rogers), who was said to have shot Kudirat and Mohammed Abdul (Katako), alleged to have driven Jabila and Sholohan while they were on the trail of Kudirat to kill her – retracted their testimonies during cross-examination.

Ojo said Jabila retracted his evidence-in-chief, by denying during cross-examination, that he was in Abuja and not in Lagos when Kudirat was killed, and that he was never ordered by anybody to kill Kudirat.

He pointed out the contradictionin Abdul’s testimonies. He said Abdul denied his testimony during re-examination, by saying he was in his village in Azare, Bauchi State, the day Kudirat was killed.

Pedro, in his  address, admitted that  retraction of their testimonies by Jabila and Abdul, during “cross-examination raises the issue of credibility of their evidence.”

He said, “The court is obliged to disbelive such witness and reject his evidence as unreliable”, but he urged the court to find the accused persons guilty based on “other evidence before the court which are not direct but circumstantial, compelling and leaves no doubt” as to their guilt.

Pedro urged the court to look into  statements tagged Exhibit A6 and D15, made by al-Mustapha and Shofolahan respectively, during investigation and to attach appropriate evidential value to them.

SOURCE: Punch Newspaper, 11 November 2011. http://punchontheweb.com