AL-MUSTAPHA: I was jailed over a video I have on Abiola’s death, Kudirat was just an excuse

Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (retd.) the Chief Security Officer (CSO) to Nigeria’s former head of state, late General Sani Abacha, has claimed that his incarceration for 15 years was not because of the death of Kudirat Abiola, but because of a video recording of how Chief MKO Abiola died.

He said the video showed the last moments of the businessman and acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election in Nigeria.

Al-Mustapha made this disclosure on Saturday when he fielded questions after he delivered the third South-West annual lecture entitled, “Developing leadership abilities in youths”, put together by Asorodayo Youth Heritage Organisation, in Ibadan, Oyo State.

He explained, “On October 21, 1998, I was arrested because of a video cassette, not because of the late Kudirat Abiola. The family of the late Abiola was, as it is, a very close family to me. But something happened, which a particular camera in the villa captured.

“So, they wanted to take the videotape and burn it so that Nigerians would not know what happened. That was the beginning of my travails.”

Al-Mustapha, who many Nigerians perceived as the executor of Abacha’s ‘brutal’ orders said that for the 15 years he was imprisoned he did not have the chance to defend himself in the media.

“So, the belief was Mustapha had committed an offence, even before my arrest. But the actual thing that happened to the late MKO Abiola is in that cassette that they want to see, that is why Mustapha was subjected to punishment and I was called names. They have wanted to know the whereabouts of that tape in the last 17 years.

“I appeared before 14 judges in Lagos. As soon as the matter was about to finish, they would stop it and take us to another court. For 15 years, I was in that state. Out of the 15 years, five years and two months, I served in detention with torture. The remaining was between Ikoyi Prisons, Kirikiri Prisons and Kuje Prisons.

“Many people, particularly lawyers, took money from those who were looking for the cassette. They would go to radio and television stations to rain abuses on me, rather than coming to court. But they did not know what was going on in the court of law.”

While Mustapha refrained from giving details about the whereabouts of the purported video cassette, he however insisted that he neither organised nor superintended the assassination of late Abiola’s wife, Kudirat, even as he inferred that Rogers was paid to implicate him.

“On the late Kudirat Abiola, Rogers himself confessed in a court of law along with other witnesses how much money they were given. Rogers confessed he was told to do so. He was given money. He was given a house. He was given a car every six months, and he was promised to be taken outside Nigeria. The plan was as soon as Lagos court pronounced me guilty and I was to be hanged, then they would rush me to prison and hang me without giving me the option to go for appeal. That was what happened.

Read also: Minister Lai needs a new brain, he sounds like a drunken monkey –Fani-Kayode

“I thank God Almighty everything that happened in Lagos State Court was compiled and signed by all the 14 judges. We are putting it together. My father has already put the book together in three volumes. You will see them soon.”

According to him, “If I am guilty, there is no way I can talk; there is no way I can get the confidence to look into their eyes because they are the bigger ones above the law in Nigeria. I am doing so. I have done it yesterday, I am doing it now and I will to do it tomorrow. If I were dishonest, I couldn’t do that.

“That is why the matter is before the Supreme Court now for appeal. We have been begging them since 2013 for the matter to be heard so that everybody can hear what happened. Up till now, the Lagos State government ran away from it. We are begging them to come to the matter. We have nothing to hide”, he claimed.

 

RipplesNigeria ….without borders, without fears

Click here to download the Ripples Nigeria App for latest updates

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now