Major Mustapha’s family bemoans appeal frustration  

MADUABUCHI NMERIBEH/Kano

Major Hamza Almustapha’s family members in Kano, northwest Nigeria have cried out over what they described as a calculated attempt to frustrate their effort to file an appeal against a Lagos High Court judgment that slammed a death sentence on their son.

Hamza Al-Mustapha, former Chief Security Officer, CSO, to the late maximum ruler, General Sani Abacha was recently condemned to death by hanging for allegedly master-minding the killing of Kudirat Abiola.His family members also threatened to drag Justice Mujisola Dada before the National Judicial Council, NJC, if she further delays the release of the judgment that ordered the death sentence on Hamza Al-Mustapha to enable facilitate the filing of an appeal.

In a statement signed by the family’s spokesman, Hadi Mustapha and made available to newsmen this evening in Kano read:  “the attention of the Al-Mustapha family has been drawn to the fact that there is a deliberate desire to frustrate the quest by Major Hamza Al-Mustapaha to seek justice at the Appeal Court.“Shortly after the recent judgement by a Lagos High court that handed down the capital punishment on Major Al-Mustapha, we directed our team of lawyers to commence the process of filing an appeal against the judgement which we felt was unjust and lacking in merit.“As a result, Mr Olalekan Ojo who held brief for Al-Mustapha at the High court sought for a copy of the written judgement from Justice Mojisola Dada who delivered the questionable judgement.“To our dismay, the copy of the judgement is yet to be made available barely one month after the judgement was delivered under the flimsy excuse that it is yet to be typed.”Hadi cited other cases involving Hamza where the written judgement was given to the family without delay, wondering why this particular case the court does not want to release the copy of the judgment.  “

“An excuse like this is coming to us as a surprise as we are aware that in similar cases involving Major Al-Mustapha in a separate Lagos High courts, we sought for a copy of the written judgement in respect of the cases involved and it was delivered to us on the same day and in an expeditious manner.“We found this act unacceptable considering the fact that it is not only unconstitutional; but against his fundamental human right as enshrined in the constitution. The act is against the dictate of the rule of law and laid down rules that stipulate that a copy of a judgement be made available to an aggrieved party who want to seek amends to a judgment he does not agree with within seven days. “If the situation remains unchanged, we would be constrained to file a petition to the national judicial council of Nigeria (NJCN), the chief justice of Nigeria (CJN), the attorney General and Minister of Justice to wade into this matter to ensure that this anomaly is corrected.“We reiterate that the capital sentence handed down on Major Al-Mustapha who has suffered untold hardship while in incarceration for 14 years was a miscarriage of justice. We would not just sit and watch further effort to keep him behind bars against the dictate of the law.” He stated.