The case for Al-Mustapha’s freedom
In the clarion appeal for mercy, we should never run out of voice or breathe until the efforts find sympathetic ears in the corridors of power. The case of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, the Chief Security Officer to the late General Sani Abacha, is well known. He is one of Nigeria’s longest held detainees. Held since […]
Recently the Association of Northern Muslim Lawyers also joined the call for a state pardon to be granted to the former Chief Security Officer to General Abacha. Because of the politics and intrigues that attended his detention and prolonged trial, major Al-Mustapha is gaining widespread public sympathy. Being held for fourteen years without justice is an experience you cannot wish even for your enemy. Nigerians are aware of the complex forces at work who do not want Al-Mustapha to breathe the air of freedom because of one private grudge or the other. In fact, at one stage, the young Major was facing a trial within a trial. The former Chief Army staff, General Ishaya Bamaiyi, almost died in detention before he was eventually acquitted and discharged after already spending 10 years for nothing. His crime was that he voted against the endorsement of Obasanjo as the official presidential candidate of the former General Abdulsalami Abubakar military regime. Major Al-Mustapha’s case is even worse because he has more ferocious and unforgiving enemies than any of his former fellow detainees. They want to exact maximum vengeance, despite the fact that fourteen years in detention are torturous enough to jolt the conscience of his tormentors.
In fact, at a point in the course of the trial, the state lead witness, Mr. Barnabas Mshelia (aka Sergeant Rogers) alleged that two former Ministers of Justice, the late chief Bola Ige and Mr. Kanu Agabi and the former Lagos State Attorney General, Professor Yemi Osibanjo, had visited him in jail and pleaded with him to implicated Major Al-Mustapha. According Rogers, who turned a hostile witness to the embarrassment of the prosecution team, he was promised handsome rewards if he was ready to cooperate by implicating Al-Mustapha in the alleged assassination of the late Mrs. Kudirat Abiola.
What is strange to keen observers who have been following the case is that Chief Kanu Agabi and Professor Osibanjo were never invited before the court to clarify Rogers’ allegation of attempting to induce a witness. Earlier in the trial within a trial, Al-Mustapha was acquitted of the charges of plotting a coup d’e tat against former President Olusegun Obasanjo by allegedly planning to shoot down his helicopter with a stinger missile. The former Emir of Gwandu, Major Nustapha Haruna Jokolo (retired) also alleged in a newspaper interview that certain Northern Generals were among the individuals working secretly to frustrate the freedom of Al-Mustapha. Major Jokolo even mentioned names, and none of them has responded to the allegation.
Whatever the array of forces against him, however, President Jonathan still has a duty to maintain the path of national healing through reconciliation and amnesty policy for all Nigerians. Major Al-Mustaapha has suffered enough and already his health is facing strain; his mother is also struck by high blood pressure. No nation can grow on the basis of permanent vengeance. In the words of Francis Bacon, the famous English statesman, “vengeance is a form of wild justice, which the law should seek to weed out.” Therefore, President Jonathan should maintain the amnesty policy in such a way that no discrimination should be perceived in its application.
A leader should not follow the mob instinct of rough justice without reflection. Former President Nelson Mandela of South Africa pursued reconciliation and healing rather than exacting vengeance, despite spending 27 years behind bars for fighting for the freedom of his oppressed people. South Africa did not collapse because of Mandela’s policy of national healing, reconciliation and forgiveness. Since the freedom of former Niger Delta militants, OPC leaders and the Igbo ethnic sovereignty movement (MASSOB) leader, Mr. Ralph Uwazuruike, did Nigeria collapse? It is hard to see how the pardon of Major Al-Mustapha could harm Nigeria if the freedom granted to others before him didn’t bring down the country. The President has the power to grant him pardon to make amnesty policy more even-handed. This case requires a political solution once and for all. Well-meaning Nigerians across the country have pleaded for Mustapha’s freedom and President Jonathan should listen to the voices of reason, compassion, mercy and forgiveness.
Soba wrote from Ali Akilu Road, Kaduna ([email protected])