Dr Frederick Usiotan Faseun needs no introduction. What is new about the founder of the Odua People's Congress, OPC, is that Major Hamza Al- Mustapha, who also needs no introduction, has been telling everyone that he has "found a father" in Dr. Faseun. Says Al-Mustapha, "I have found a father—highly dogmatic, a senior citizen of this country, a detribalised elder, an intellectual, a person that is a father indeed with a wide shoulder and a big heart, a man that is very reliable, responsible, and dependable, in Dr. Fredrick Faseun.
"He stood by me, having taken time to come to the court to realise what was going on in the court of law. On the other hand, what was being scripted and sponsored on the pages of newspapers, magazines, television and the radio were different, he now decided to stay on the part of justice and insist that justice must be served.
In rainy season, dry season, cold season, he was always in the court.
"I know of the humiliation he suffered. I must say that I have a father in the South-West and the part of this country that is my own and that is a personality I look up to for vision and guidance.
I respect him as a father that can look through issues beyond tribal sentiment, beyond religious issues, he is an asset to the country, and that is why I have anchored upon him as a father with whom we can look into the future together."
Strange words indeed!
Faseun told KAYODE FALADE how he met Al-Mustapha and became his champion.
What is your relationship with Major Hamza Al-Mustapha?
My relationship with Al- Mustapha is that of a man to a fellow man. He is a Nigerian, I am a Nigerian. He is a man falsely accused of an offence he did not commit. I feel I should come out to tell the entire world that there was no justice in the judgement given to him for an offence he did not commit.
Why do you say "an offence he did not commit" when we were told during the trial that he not only instructed those who shot Kudirat Abiola, but also facilitated the weapon that was used in killing her?
Is that not what we were told? But they did not tell the public that this same witness who said that Mustapha gave him the gun to kill Kudi came back to court crying like a baby, sobbing and saying that he was induced to testify like that. Induced by whom, the court asked?
He said the state induced him. Who was the state? He mentioned three people including the Director General of the State Security Service, SSS, at that time. What were you induced with?
He s a i d he was told he would be given a house in Abuja, he would be given foreign posting, his salaries would be paid in foreign exchange and their wives would be given money every month for sustenance. But when the state now failed to sustain its own part of the bargain, they too started singing. If the state failed to sustain its own part of the bargain, why should they?
And they gave the full version of their involvement. First, some of them, as a result of complying with the wishes of the state, were set free. They were walking the streets freely and even went back to their jobs. One of them was not even in Lagos in the month of June, 1997.
He was not anywhere near Lagos. On the 4th of June, the day Kudirat was murdered in Lagos, Kachako was getting married in Kazaure in Bauchi State. He got married at 10 o'clock while Kudirat was killed between 8am and 9am. He said in that month of June, he was not anywhere near Lagos. And after getting married, he went for his honeymoon.
The judge of the local court was told all that and she recorded everything said by those witnesses. She based her judgement of 'death by hanging until death takes over' on prosecution witness 2 and 3. But no one told Nigerians that all these happened in court. No one told us that the evidence was retracted.
And when the judge was going to give judgement in the lower court, she knew that such a crime might get death sentence. So she itemised the evidence and said, "But there are circumstantial evidences." Circumstantial evidences in a murder case? Okay, what are the circumstantial evidences? She did not say. And yet she wrote 386 pages of judgement.
What was she looking for writing 386 pages? According to the Appeal Court, she was fishing for untruth, falsehood and lies.
And I think the Appeal Court wrote about 33 pages or so with various authorities cited. At the end, the Appeal Court didn't see what circumstances the lower court referred to, so they said that crime and punishment will not be an influence in their judgement.
The Appeal Court based its judgement on hard facts, not circumstantial evidences; true evidences from credible witnesses, not witnesses that give one evidence and afterwards come back to the same court to retract such evidence.
Can't we also consider the possibility of the accused being induced to withdraw the statements they earlier made?
Who would induce him? The state? That is ridiculous. Al-Mustapha was in prison for 15 years. He was even accused of planning a coup in prison. Generals even said he was attempting to import stinger missiles into Nigeria.
But when he was called to face a panel, he disgraced all of them. He asked them how much they thought a missile was being sold. Of course, they could not answer. He told them, "Sir, the smallest of them costs N250 million dollars.
I was supposed to be his accomplice in the coup and the SSS invited me. When they started querying me, I told to put their questions in black and white, not orally; and that I would respond in writing. And they departed. Al-Mustapha, who was in prison, was accused of ordering a stinger missile.
And he asked those generals, if any of them knew the colour of a stinger missile. None of them knew it. You see, so I am not surprised that you said he induced some of these characters to go against a formidable state.
How come they linked you with the coup story? Did the two of you have any kind of relationship then?
I don't know. Now, I have always believed that Al-Mustapha did not commit the offence he was being accused of. Hence, I would occasionally visit him in Kirikiri. They must have thought that everybody that visited a criminal must be a criminal himself. How could anyone believe that I would be involved in a coup in this country? And of course, the plan was not just to damage Al-Mustapha, but to damage also anybody close to him.
When and how did you meet Al-Mustapha?
I met Al-Mustapha during the sitting of the Oputa Panel. I never knew him from Adam. I did not even know him at the panel until I had given my own evidence. I was going to the toilet and he was sitting very close to the entrance of the toilet. When I wanted to enter the toilet, he stood up and asked me, "Are you Dr. Fasheun?" I said, 'Call it anyhow, I am Dr. Faseun.
And you, who are you?" He answered, "I am Al-Mustapha." I pulled back and said, "You Al-Mustapha? My God!" and I didn't say a word to him after that. I just went to the toilet, came out and went my own way. But when that sitting ended, he came to see me.
He said, "Sir, congratulations." I asked what for and he replied. Mind you I still had that grudge against him. He said, "Because you are one of the few leaders that did not come to the Aso Rock Villa. That is why I think you are a credible person." And I said thank you very much.
It was about three months later that I took interest in his case. I started reading about it and of course I started visiting him.
Some of my people knew that I was going there regularly. He started trying to tell me a few things and I said, "Look, you are a military man; such information should not emanate from you because of its security importance. So please, please, we will be friends, provided you don't set this country ablaze."
One of the conditions I gave him to be his friend was that he must do everything in his power to preserve Nigeria's unity.
Even then, did you have to go to Kano with him when he was released?
I once said that Al-Mustapha should be released. If you don't release him, please take him to Abuja, Jos or Sokoto. Whatever you do, please take him out of Yoruba land.
This is because I sensed that even a fifth columnist could be sent to liquidate that young man. If he died in our hands, every Yoruba throat in the north would be slashed.
Now that God prevailed on the situation and he did not die on our soil, I took him to Kano to hand him over to the governor and the Galadima as the Emir of Kano was not in town. I handed him over and said, "When he was leaving here in 1998, he was in tatters.
His hands were in chains and his legs in shackles. Now, I am returning him on behalf of the Yoruba people, hale, hearty and untouched. Please look after him." What I did was not for me.
It was not done for my own interest. At 78, I am not afraid of death. I did it for my people. When I got to Kano, the crowd was not singing anything else but chanting: "Odua, Odua, Odua."
What is Odua? Definitely not Dr Faseun. It is the Yoruba. When we got to the leaders and I spoke, one of their eminent leaders got up and said, "Dr. Faseun, we kept quiet but we were watching what you were doing." (I don't know what he meant by 'you.') But after this journey, we have seen you as the biggest bridge builder in this country."
When I was leaving Kano, 45 northern leaders, including those who have been popular lawmakers in this country, saw me to the airport. It dawned on me that what I came to do was not child's play. I was not acting on my own. I was acting on behalf of the Yoruba.
How could you not be free to go to Kaduna just because you are a Yoruba man who had contributed to liquidating their son?
Sir, some Afenifere leaders have questioned your visit to Kano. They say you couldn't possibly be representing the Yoruba. They argue that Al-Mustapha is a representation of the Abacha regime, a regime that so much persecuted the Yoruba
I did not go to Kano to represent the Yoruba race. Who am I to say I am rep- CONTINUED FROM PAGE 16 resenting the Yoruba.
The position that Al-Mustapha is a representation of the Abacha regime is the basis of the lingering grudge we all had against him, that he was part of a regime that persecuted the Yoruba race.
But should we nurse one grudge for 20 years? Now there are two Yoruba people in the government of Kano. What evidence do you need again that Yoruba people are at peace in Kano?
You said you took your action for the Yoruba people. Was there any form of interaction between you and other leaders before you acted?
I did not interact with anybody on that issue.
Have you been invited by any of these Yoruba groups on your action? No. Nobody has invited me.
How can someone associated with probably the most wicked regime in Nigeria's history be as innocent as you have painted Al-Mustapha? Are there some things you know that we don't know? And if as you say, he had no hand in Kudirat's death, then who killed her or ordered her death?
I don't believe the last has been seen (or heard) about the death of Kudirat. I also know that Nigerian authorities sweep serious issues under the carpet. Consider that the Chief Security Officer of the country, Chief Bola Ige, was assassinated and we know nothing till now.
Al-Mustapha was a servant of the regime and a military man whose code of conduct was order and obey. Do you want him to disobey Abacha if he said go and kill Dr Faseun? Do you want him to refuse? Who killed Kudirat Abiola is a million dollar question.
And that is why I said we are directing our suspicions at the wrong quarters (Ibi ti a fi oju si, ona ko gba ibe).
The assassination of Bola Ige should have provoked the biggest investigation in the land. But it did not. As a matter of fact, his wife even collapsed and died as a result of the ineptitude of security operators. If Abacha had ordered that people should be killed and gave that order to Al- Mustapha, he could only disobey his boss on one proviso, that he left the military and fled the country. That is judging by what Abacha was.
Does it mean that you are agreeing now that Al-Mustapha killed some people on behalf of Abacha?
People were killed during the regime of Abacha. Even Abiola himself was to be killed. It was this same Al-Mustapha that changed the abode of Abiola and took him to a safe place. He also organised possibilities of meetings between Abiola and his wives. But two days after Abiola was killed, some Yoruba leaders went to Aso Rock Villa. What were they doing there?
There is this allegation that you are being sponsored to destabilise the South West by trying to bring up again the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). Now, it is being said that this recent visit of yours to Kano is another ploy to destabilise the South West. What is your reaction?
With all modesty, I would be counted as one of the Yoruba people that are in love with the Yoruba race. And there is no way, and I think I have demonstrated it in various ways, that I will work against the interest of the Yoruba people.
Those sponsoring damaging comments about me are doing it from their political standpoint, which I have tried to expose. But unfortunately, I don't have the money to sponsor the exposure.
I keep saying that Nigeria as a country does not have any position for me anymore. I am going to be 78 in another month.
Nigeria has no position for me. Twenty five years ago, I aspired to be President. Jonathan must have been a school boy then.
So Nigeria no longer has any position for me. But if I see any trend as inimical to the interest of the Yoruba people, I should be in a position to say, "don't go through there, a tiger is lurking behind that door."
That is my interest. What do I need from Nigeria? Is it a bed to sleep on or a car to ride in? Is it food to eat? No. I eat once a day.
Is it money to train my children? No. I don't have children to train anymore? There is nothing I want for Nigeria, other than peace, amity and unity. And I believe all of us should not, because of a past of bitter incidents, think the country should not exist.
One of the conditions you said you gave Al-Mustapha to be friends with him is the preservation of Nigeria's unity. Before meeting him, did you believe in the workability of the entity called Nigeria?
No Nigerian ever believed in the workability of Nigeria. Let us not deceive ourselves.
Including you?
Look, I founded OPC for a reason. The way I founded OPC, people founded Egbesu, people founded MEND, people founded Yindaba, people founded Boko Haram, people founded Arewa Consultative Forum and these are from the various zones constituting Nigeria. So that question has been answered.
Do you still believe Nigeria is working?
When you do what should be done and you manifest justice, justice is always right. Now that Nigeria has started doing right, I think God will reconsider His position on us.
Is Nigeria doing right now?
Yes, I think so. I have always said that the key to the insecurity of Nigeria was locked up in Kirikiri. Now, Al-Mustapha is probably the most intelligent security operative this country ever trained. And you locked him up for 15 years.
In the mean time, Yindaba came, Boko Haram came and we did not think that the answer was flying in the wind. And now, you have released Al-Mustapha and Boko Haram has gone slightly quiet.
Boko Haram has been becoming less malevolent since the declaration of emergency rule?
They killed 26 pupils recently. But that was before the release of Al-Mustapha. Now, Boko Haram has gone silent. I was in Kano. I have seen crowds all over the world, but I have never seen up to a quarter of what I saw the day Al-Mustapha returned to Kano. I saw pictures of Mandela's release.
The crowd in those pictures is not up to 10 per cent of the crowd I saw in Kano. The Kano crowd was going for about 35 kilometres, all singing and dancing. That was a feat, especially if you consider that it was Ramadan and a Sunday.
