A classic case of justice on trial
According to media reports, the star government witness, Barnabas Jabila (a.k.a. Sergeant Rogers) has painted graphic details of how he was coached by officials of the former Obasanjo administration to implicate Major Al-Mustapha along with former Zamfara State military administrator, Col. Jibrin Bala Yakubu, former Lagos State Police Commissioner, Mr. James Danbaba, the chief Superintendent […]
According to media reports, the star government witness, Barnabas Jabila (a.k.a. Sergeant Rogers) has painted graphic details of how he was coached by officials of the former Obasanjo administration to implicate Major Al-Mustapha along with former Zamfara State military administrator, Col. Jibrin Bala Yakubu, former Lagos State Police Commissioner, Mr. James Danbaba, the chief Superintendent of police (CSP) Rabo Lawal and Mohammed Abdul.
In particular, Sergeant Rogers had accused the late Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige, his successor, Mr. Kanu Agabi and the former Lagos State Attorney General, Mr. Yemi Osinbanjo, of visiting him in prison and inducing him with lavish promises of material rewards if he cooperated with Obasanjo’s government to implicate Major Al-Mustapha and other officers being tried along with him.
Sergeant Rogers, who turned a hostile witness, sent the government lawyers into disarray following his recantation of his so-called previous “confessions” before the Oputa panel in 2001. He said he was brainwashed into what he must say before the Oputa panel because the Obasanjo administration was determined to exact maximum private vengeance on Major Al-Mustapha.
Stunned court audience and the Judge were also shocked when Sergeant Rogers alleged that lavish promises made to him by the Obasanjo administration were never kept. In fact, Sergeant Rogers and another key witness asserted that they were not even in Lagos when the victim of the murder was killed. It is now evident why the former Obasanjo administration was treating Sergeant Rogers like a Prince. In fact, the former President even reinstated him into the army, which led many Nigerians to suspect Obasanjo’s motives and wondered whether he wanted justice for the late Kudirat or he was pursuing the case for his own private malicious motives.
While the late Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige is dead to defend himself, his successor, chief Kanu Agabi and the former Lagos State Attorney General, Mr. Yemi Osinbajo are alive and their refusal to refute or confirm theses grave allegations against them by Sergeant Rogers is strange to many fair- minded Nigerians. Does it mean the two top officials have no duty to defend their reputation or let the Nigerian public know the whole truth?
Sergeant Rogers has consistently maintained his allegation that they visited him in prison, seeking his cooperation to implicate Al-Mustapha and others. The silence of these top judicial officials in the face of these grave allegations is lending credence to the suspicion of political motives. The entire trial has been discredited and the fact that nobody bothered to invite Kanu Agabi and Yemi Osinbajo will further sustain the allegation of political motives in the trial.
The previous account by the former Chief of Army staff, General Ishaya Bamaiyi who was facing charges with Major Al-Mustapha, conclusively proved the political motives of the case. Gen. Bamaiyi almost died in prison after the deterioration of his health and had to be flown to Dubai for urgent treatment.
Sensing that the former Obasanjo administration was determined to see him dead, Gen. Bamaiyi’s lawyers demanded a separate and accelerated trial. And predictably, the politically concocted evidence against him could not stand up in court and he was eventually discharged and acquitted. Gen. Bamaiyi was simply lucky to survive the trial to that point after spending ten years in detention. His only crime was that he refused to support the endorsement of Gen. Obasanjo as a presidential candidate of the PDP by the Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar administration, which unwisely anointed Obasanjo as its successor.
Why is Major Al-Mustapha’s case so special to Obasanjo that his two former Ministers of Justice must personally visit the prison to persuade Sergeant Rogers to implicate him and other suspects? The way the trial is proceeding so far and with the recantation by Sergeant Rogers and other so-called state witnesses, the credibility of the case has suffered another blow.
The current trial of Major Al-Mustapha and other suspects has lost credibility and the latest revelation by Sergeant Rogers about the political nature of the case has scandalized Nigerians. Does President Yar’adua need more time to re-examine this case, which has been repeatedly discredited by malicious motives? If the President could grant amnesty to criminal gangs that took up arms against Nigeria, committing treason, economic sabotage, killing innocent people and taking hostages for ransom, there is no justification why the Al-Mustapha case should be ignored.
Nwachukwu writes from 142, Audu Bako Road, Sabon Gari, Kano