Al-Mustapha’s long road to freedom

For most impartial observers, it is very difficult to argue for or against Al-Mustapha’s freedom without incurring the wrath of people on both sides of the divide. Yet, it is difficult to sit on the fence. To those who think that Abacha was a maximum dictator who emasculated the nation with a Hitler kind of […]

For most impartial observers, it is very difficult to argue for or against Al-Mustapha’s freedom without incurring the wrath of people on both sides of the divide. Yet, it is difficult to sit on the fence. To those who think that Abacha was a maximum dictator who emasculated the nation with a Hitler kind of iron fist, Al-Mustapha was his Heinrich Hemmler. Those who encountered Al-Mustapha have described him as a ruthless soldier whose milk of human kindness dried up the moment he was appointed CSO. He would bark orders at his boys and they would carry them out with ruthless abandon. Several opposition figures were sent into premature exile. The era of unresolved killings took a higher dimension under his watch. Ironically, journalists and politicians were two professionals who bore the brunt of his antics.

It was under Abacha that Bagauda Kaltho was bombed into smithereens in a hotel in Kaduna. It was under him that the likes of Dapo Olorunyomi and Alex Kabba were uprooted from their fatherland. It was under Al-Mustapha’s watch that Mohammed Adamu, Olu Akerele and Onome Osifo-Whiskey to mention a few were incarcerated and tortured for several months. It is ironical that the mercy he denied his victims is the same that his friends and supporters are craving for him. It shows truly that what goes round, comes round. Al-Mustapha’s story is one that cannot be written in a newspaper article. Unfortunately, ours is not a country of readers or writers anymore – the quest for bare existence has eliminated the book culture from our society and it aint coming back soon.

The fact that the presiding judge in the Al-Mustapha case described the entire evidence on which the state sought to prosecute him as ‘totally useless’ underscores the level of problem that the average Nigerian has in facing dubious charges and the slow grinding process of justice. If after twelve years of trial, a judge can describe the evidence brought by state prosecutors as useless, then one can begin to imagine the things that happen daily in our magistrate and area courts where the poor are mostly tried and convicted on frivolous charges. It used to be true that in so-called developed world, those who can afford to, buy their way out of court situations, that too is happening in Nigeria.

There are several such instances, but perhaps the most recent ones should suffice. Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, Tafa Balogun, Afolabi, Bode George and recently Cecilia Ibru, not to mention James Ibori come to mind. The high and mighty buy themselves out of long jail terms that would have consumed the ordinary Nigerian. Our prison yards are filled with people who need either psychiatric or social help while the fat cats who have enough body mass and financial muscle to withstand the rigours of time behind bars only serve their sentences in amenity wards.

It is also said, and this is no fairy tale, that most Nigerian judges bite more than they can chew in terms of the number of cases that find ways into their courts. These judges in most cases lack the technological know-how to fastrack hearings – they work in incredible situations, and still write their judgements with their bare hands. Where research is necessary, some judges still depend on defence lawyers to ‘borrow’ books so they can carefully study the dynamics of the citations made before them. In a country where electricity is a luxury, access to the internet which would enable judges to borrow from informed decisions in other lands is absent.

But then, aren’t we jumping the gun? The police lack absolutely everything a modern investigating and prosecuting agency needs. Officers are often corrupted by greed; they lack motivation and the basic tools of investigation. They conduct shoddy enquiries, sometimes consciously leaving out valid evidence in an ‘I don’t care’ manner thereby frustrating what should be solid or landmark cases. In other countries, detectives get their promotions by the number of cases they crack, in Nigeria the reverse is the case. If a man of means like Al-Mustapha could battle for twelve years and still remain behind bars, one can imagine the number of less luckier people serving term for offences which would (given good representation) have collapsed on the first day. Yet, we say that justice delayed is justice denied.