Al-Mustapha et al: Remembering not to forget
Widely believed to be one of the longest political trials in recent memory, Al-Mustapha and other suspects have spent almost eleven years in detention. Former President Obasanjo threw them into jail to exact vengeance over his alleged maltreatment by the late General Sani Abacha regime in which Al-mustapha was a powerful figure. Contrary to erroneous […]
Widely believed to be one of the longest political trials in recent memory, Al-Mustapha and other suspects have spent almost eleven years in detention. Former President Obasanjo threw them into jail to exact vengeance over his alleged maltreatment by the late General Sani Abacha regime in which Al-mustapha was a powerful figure.
Contrary to erroneous notions, Obasanjo didn’t put them into jail because of his special love for the late Kudirat Abiola. After all, Obasanjo was not and has never been a hero of June 12. In fact, in the heat of the struggle to re-validate Abiola’s mandate, he said in faraway Zimbabwe that Abiola was not the messiah that Nigeria couldn’t do without. Ironically, he became the beneficiary of Abiola’s death in custody when Nigerians decided to concede political power to the southwest to mollify the Yoruba people.
Despite his dubious claims of being a born-again Christian, General Obasanjo’s heart was tipped with a poisoned sword of vengeance. It was not surprising, therefore, why he was determined to teach major Al-Mustapha and others a lesson. Admittedly, Obasanjo inherited the detainee from the Abdulsalami Abubakar administration, which accused Al-Mustapha of planning a coup. But Obasanjo also had his own agenda. With Al- Mustapha already in jail, Obasanjo had to go for other victims such as Gen. Bamaiyi, former Chief of Army Staff, Col. Bala Yakubu, James Danbaba and Rabo Lawal who were charged with murder.
General Bamaiyi was however, luckier, because he successfully established in court the violent political motives behind Obasanjo’s campaign against him. This is basically that he refused to support the endorsement of Obasanjo by Abubakar’s administration as the official candidate of the government to succeed General Abdulsalam Abubakar. Genara Bamaiyi was eventually discharged and acquitted after spending ten years where he almost died of deteriorating health condition while in detention.
Even after the acquittal of Genaral Bamaiyi, the political motives of the former president Obasanjo continue to manifest themselves day after day in the course of the trial. For example, the government’s star witness, Barnabas Mshelia (Sergeant Rogers), has severally told the court that the former Obasanjo administration induced him with many promises of handsome reward if he could cooperate to implicate Al-Mustapha and others. In fact he alleged that two former Lagos State Attorney Generals had visited him in jail, soliciting for his cooperation to convict the suspects.
General Obasanjo reinstated Sergeant Roger into the Nigerians army and treated him like a prince. Little did Nigerians realize however, that Obasanjo’s motive was to brainwash Sergeant Rogers to play his diabolical script. The admission by the star witness that he is a pawn in Obasanjo’s chess board of mischief has discredited the trial. Many Nigerians commended the courage of the judges handling this delicate case and the acquittal of General Bamaiyi attested to their integrity.
Nobody is quarrelling with the judges handling the case but those who filed the case with a hidden political agenda. And once infected by political motives, a trial can run into controversy, thereby making judges to walk a tightrope. However, with the political agenda of the case decisively established, the trial of Al-Mustapha and others should be resolved politically (not legalistically). Having spent almost eleven years in jail and justice ever far away, the Yar’adua administration should seize the initiative to end the case once and for all.
If the federal government could grant pardon to militants that took up arms against the state, it should extend the same gesture of magnanimity to major Al-Mustapha and other suspects. State pardon can only be credible and less controversial when the prerogative of mercy is evenly extended by the president. These victims of political trial have already suffered enough. Being deprived of physical freedom and detached from your family and other loves ones is a bad enough experience. The pendulum of public sympathy is swinging rapidly to the side of Al-Mustapha. Earlier, Nigerians celebrated the release of OPC factional leaders, Ganiyu Adams and Dr. Frederick Fasheun; the Igbo political agitator, Chief Ralph uwazuruike and the leader of the Niger Delta volunteer force, Alhaji Asari Dokubo.
It is not in the best interest of the image of the Yar’adua administration if it refuses to reconsider the Al-Mustapha case. Any perception of discrimination against particular Nigerian citizens in detention will politically damage the government of Yar’adua. The peaceful demonstration in Lafia demanding the release of Al-Mustapha and others is a reflection of the wider feeling of northerners and other like-minded Nigerians about the issue. In fact the OPC factional leader Dr. Frederick Fasheun had previously put out advertisement calling for Mustapha’s release in the spirit of national reconciliation. It would be an act of statesmanship if the Yar’adua administration takes a hard, objective look at Al-Mustapha’s case and end their suffering once and for all.
Karaye wrote in from Block 15, Ogunsayo Street, Surulere, Lagos