The unanticipated release of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (retd) by the Court of Appeal is said to be rattling old political camps in the North, as tongues are wagging over alleged political undertones and its implications for the 2015 political permutations.
Prior, the northern region was prior to the release of the former Chief Security Officer to General Sani Abacha dominated by three main political blocks, which will now contend with a new block ro be led by Al-Mustapha, who had cleverly managed to win some support for himself with his incarceration.
The old camps include the Babangida/Abdulsalami group, the Buhari alliance and the northern mainstream camp of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.
The acquitted security chief had throughout the 14 years he was in prison pointed fingers at top former
military leaders as the brain behind his trial.
Mustapha had always maintained that his trial was activated by those who believed he knew too much about the circumstances surrounding the death of the late winner of the 2003 presidential election, Chief MKO Abiola, who died in detention.
Hours after his release, Al-Mustapha has become a new rallying point for northern political actors who see him as a fresh face in the dilluted political waters of the north thus raising fears in old political camps due to his enormous influence during the dark days of the Abacha regime.
Checks showed that though the release is generating furore in some sections of the country, particularly the South-West where the slain Kudirat Abiola and her husband hailed from, the political base already built around the former security chief while in detention is said to have begun to work in anticipation of the agenda he may launch in the countdown to 2015.
Al-Mustapaha was earlier rumored to be eyeing the governorship seat of Yobe State with an organisation said to have developed around the influential military officer. The massive reach of his network and the rumoured enormous war chest are said to be raising fears, especially as old allies of the late military head of state, General Abacha, are reported to be wakening up from their low-profile postures.
In a manner that showed the new found popularity of the Yobe indigene, some state governments in the North are altready falling over each other to host and organise a reception for him. The Kano State government is reported to have announced a plan to host and celebrate the ex-Abacha aide.
While Al-Mustapha has not decided on party affiliation, reports indicated that he may align with none of the old power blocks in the North, especially as they are led by leaders he had accused several times of persecuting him due to lingering politics of the old Abacha era. It was said that, as a result, he might not likely support any political affiliation which the two former military presidents, Generals Babangida and Abubakar belong to.
Meanwhile, watchers of the political trends are already interpreting the court judgment as capable of enhancing the political base of President Jonathan in the North.
While the court judgment is seen as based on purely legal considerations, there are strong reports that Al-Mustapha may pitch his tent with the pro-Jonathan forces in the North due to his well documented differences with the camps of Generals Babangida and Abdul-Salami Abubabkar.
According to a political leader: "Al-Mustapha may be an asset for Jonathan due to his deep knowledge of deeds of many top Northern leaders who are currently opposed to the President .We all know he won't side with some forces in the North and he may feel the president has solved the 14-year problem that kept him in jail, though the release had nothing to do with the president."
According to him, Jonathan now has a strong voice in Al-Mustapha who knows so much about the President's opponents. If he allows the young man to open up, then 2015 will take a new character."
It will be recalled that President Jonathan had come under intense pressure to effect the release of Major Al-Mustapha. There is, however, no evidence to support any claim of presidential intervention.
Reactions to Al-Mustapha's release His house wears new look in KanoKola Oyelere - KanoMAJOR Hamza Al-Mustapha's house, located at Bompai in Kano State is now wearing a new look, as his loyalists were said to have begun plans to receive him in a grand style.
Relatives, friends and loyalists had started trooping to Bompai in the early hours of Saturday to welcome him, but were told he was yet to arrive from Lagos.
A source told Sunday Tribune that some youths in the area had planned to wear shirts with inscription 'Al-Mustapa with 'Al-Mustapha freedom Na Go de Allah', meaning (Al-Mustapha freedom, we thank Allah).
The source also hinted that he was expected to arrive the city of Kano on Friday, but his arrival had been shifted today.
It was equally gathered that security had been beefed up by law enforcement agents to curtail the perceived large crowds expected to give him a rousing welcome.
It will be recall that Major Al-Mustapha lost his parents while he was incarcerated.
A close friend of Al Mustapha, Ibrahim Shehu, expressed his delight at his friend's release, saying "we thank Nigerians for their support during the trial period and we are all happy that our man is returning to us safely," he said.
Fani-Kayode hails judgementPaschal Okeke - AbujaTHE Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has hailed the judgement of the Court of Appeal yesterday, which ruled that retired Colonel Hamza Al Mustapha, the former Chief Security Officer to former Head of State, Late General Sani Abacha, must be set free of a murder conviction for the June 4, 1996 assassination of Kudirat Abiola, a wife of Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.
Fani-Kayode who stated this while speaking to journalists in Abuja, stated that the state had failed woefully in keeping Al Mustapha for more than 14 years without any conviction.
The former Aviation Minister said that he had looked at the conviction given to Al Mustapha by the Lagos State High Court and had found no evidence to convict him.
He commended the Judges of the Court of Appeal that granted the former CSO freedom.
He said "this is the man that would tell us the relevant answers, he will tell us who killed MKO Abiola, Kudirat Abiola and Sani Abacha, the people who did it are still at large and free".
Fani-Kayode noted that he had never been a pro-Abacha, and that he was even driven out on exile during the administration of the late General.
He stated that the big shots who were at the helm of power should be the ones to be held for all the series of murder cases.
He said he was against the process of not the government not investigating high profile murder cases through the years, including that of the former Minister of Justice, Bola Ige.
I have mixed feelings —Ebun-Olu AdegboruwaYejide Gbenga-Ogundare - LagosLAGOS based Human Rights activist and Lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa on Saturday expressed mixed feelings about acquittal granted Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, by the court of Appeal sitting in Lagos.
According to him, the acquittal was a proof that the Abacha's regime was not a law-abiding period as if it had been then, Al-Mustapha would have been dead by now"I received the news of Al-Mustapha's acquittal by the court of appeal with mixed feelings. I am happy that the system of due process, of democratic resort to the law court, for redress, was working.
"Had the judgment of the Hon. Justice Mojisola Dada, of the Lagos High Court, that sentenced him to death, been delivered in 1994 when Al-Mustapha was CSO to late Gen Sani Abacha, he would have been executed by now.
"It is indeed gratifying, that Al-Mustapha is now benefitting from the same judiciary that he worked tirelessly to annihilate.
"Thus, I cannot take the acquittal as verdict of clearance for Al-Mustapha. I personally tasted of the madness, of the wickedness and deprivations that Gen Abacha and Al-Mustapha subjected Nigerians to, when I was incarcerated in solitary confinement at the Directorate of Military Intelligence for nine months without trial".
"The judgment of Hon. Justice I.N. Auta, that I should be released, was ignored and derided by Al-Mustapha and his co-dictators. But today, he was released from Kirikiri prisons the same day the judgment was delivered.
"If it is indeed true that there was no evidence before the court linking him with the charges, or there's any doubt in the case of the prosecution, then he is entitled to the liberty of man.
"But that is not the end if the case, at all. There is the judgment of man, judgment of self (conscience) and the judgment of God. It is clear to me that MKO Abiola, Kudirat Abiola and all other martyrs, who gave up their lives and liberties for this present democracy, have not died or laboured in vain.
"I commend the Lagos State Government and especially those lawyers at the Ministry of Justice, who have followed all these cases. I urge the government to appeal against the judgment to the Supreme Court.
"The ultimate lesson that Al-Mustapha and other enemies of democracy should learn is that dictatorship does not pay, and that in the end of it all, we should allow democracy, freedom of choice and genuine aspirations, which Kudirat paid for with her life, to reign," Adegboruwa said.
How TB Joshua predicted Al-Mustapha's incarceration, releaseHead of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, Prophet T.B. Joshua has revealed how he predicted many years ago the ordeal that former Chief Security Officer to late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, would suffer and his eventual release, noting that this was why the latter visited his church in Ikotun Egbe area of Lagos immediately after his release on Friday.
Joshua, who reportedly made this known to one Halima Babangida, a freelance journalist, in an interview, said he got to know Al-Mustapha when his former boss was still in power and he [Joshua] was taken to the Aso Rock in connection with a petition written about him.
Al-Mustapha had reportedly visited Joshua clad in the same apparel he left the prisons in, with the prophet saying: "I was able to reveal to them who I am by telling them what was to come as a prophet.
"One of those things I mentioned to them and to Mustapha in particular, was what he went through, though he did not believe me then. That was why when it came to pass, I was the first person he remembered. I told him that he would spend several years in prison and would be finally released which no one else had ever told him."
