Major Mustafa freed at last; his 15-year journey to freedom

In many days to come, Maj. Hamza al-Mustapha, former Chief Security Officer to the late Head of State, Gen. Sani
Abacha, will have to learn how to live as a free man. Al-Mustapha was appointed Chief Security Officer to the
Head of State with a Special Strike Force Unit during Abacha's military regime (November 17, 1993 - June 8,
1998). After about 15 years of incarceration, based on a series of
allegations including extra-judicial killings under the regime of the late Abacha, his new found life came on the
heels of the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Lagos, which on Friday discharged and acquitted him of the murder of the late Kudirat Abiola. Al-Mustapha's travails, as confirmed by him while testifying during his trial before the Lagos High Court, started soon
after his former boss died on June 8, 1998. The former CSO to the Head of State was schemed out of the military politics, which eventually threw up Gen.
Abudusalami Abubakar as the new Head of State. Some months after the new government became comfortable on its seat in 1998, al-Mustapha was posted
out of the Presidential Villa to Enugu, where he was first accused of being in possession of Abacha's property.
Before he was subsequently arraigned for the murder of Kudirat in 1999, he faced a number of panels over series of
allegations, one of which was the importation of ammunition from Libya to remove Abubakar as the Head of
State. He also faced the Special Investigation Panel set up by former President Olusegun Obasanjo's administration, which succeeded Abubakar's. The investigation of the SIP was what culminated in his arraignment alongside Shofolahan, son of the late Head of State, Mohammed Abacha; Rabo Lawal, a Chief Superintendent of Police, who was the head of the Mobile
Police Force Unit in the Presidential Villa.
After the case was moved away from the Magistrate's Court, the four men were arraigned before Justice Augustine
Adetula Alabi on two counts of murder and conspiracy. Later,the case was then transferred to another judge
following al-Mustapha's application that it should be transferred from Justice Ade-Alabi. They were re-arraigned before Justice Dada in 2008. As the matter dragged on, in a judgment similar to the
judgment of the Court of Appeal delivered on Friday, the Supreme Court on July 11, 2002, discharged and acquitted
Mohammed Abacha on the basis that no evidence linked him with the alleged crime.