Attempt on Ibru’s life: Court acquits Al-Mustapha, others

A Lagos High Court, Tuesday, freed Major Hamzat Al-Mustapha, former CSO to late head of state, General Sani Abacha, but still faces a murder charge alongside CSP Rabo Lawal, a former Head of the Aso Rock Anti-Riot Police, over the killing of the late Alhaja Kudirat Abiola.

However, Lt. Col Jubrin Bala Yakubu (rtd), former Zamfara State military administrator and ex-Lagos Police boss, James Danbaba, were freed of the charge.

All of them stood trial over alleged attempted murder of publisher of The Guardian Newspapers, Mr Alex Ibru in 1999.

Trial Judge, Justice Mufutau Olokooba, in his ruling on a no-case submission by the defence team, held that the evidence on all the counts preferred against the accused persons were worthless, adding that there was no evidence of conspiracy as alleged on the first count.

“I hold that no prima facie case has been established against the accused persons. I hereby acquit and discharge them,” the court held.

However, in his reaction to the judgment, the state Solicitor-General, Mr. Lawal Pedro, SAN, said the state could not immediately say whether or not it would appeal the judgment

According to him, since the court has come to the conclusion that the defendants had no case to answer, it is a pure issue of law, which requires special considerations.

Pedro said: “I am yet to receive a copy of the judgment now. Apart from the arguments canvassed by the parties before the court, the judgment has raised issues of law, which we have to carefully study. The Judge in his wisdom has held that the defendants had no case to answer, so, we have to study the judgment thoroughly before we take any decision. I cannot reply you immediately.

“As for us, we have no special or personal interest in the case. We do not regard it as a special case, because we treated the case like any other attempted murder or other criminal cases being handled by the ministry. So, the judgement of the court was based on how the presiding judge sees the case.”

Shortly after the judgment, family members and sympathisers took to the streets around the court premises to celebrate the victory, which they said had taken a long time to achieve.

Reacting to the ruling, one of the counsel said: “James Dambaba, former commissioner of police in Lagos State would go home, the third defendant, colonel Bala Yakubu, former military administrator of Zamfara State would go home. But my client, Al-Mustapha and Rabo Lawal can’t go because of the case before Justice M. Dada.

“It must be realised that it was the same set of witnesses that gave evidence before Justice Olokooba, that gave evidence before Justice Dada. But I can say, that the evidences before Justice Dada, who is handling the case of alleged murder of Kudirat Abiola by the defendants is even much more damaging and contradictory than what they had before Justice Olokooba. What I expect of any prosecution is to throw in the towel and withdraw the case,” he said.

The case suffered several delays and adjournments, which lasted for over ten years, due to series of applications filed by the accused persons in order to prove their innocence of the charges of conspiracy and attempted murder preferred against them.

The first complication came when the presiding judge, Justice Alabi was accused of demanding bribe of $10 million to convict the accused persons. This led to agitation for the case to be moved to another court .