Hamza Al-Mustapha, ex-chief security officer to Sani Abacha, former head of state, says a camera at the presidential villa in Abuja captured the last moments of MKO Abiola, acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.
Abiola died under suspicious circumstances shortly after the death of Abacha. He was due to be released on July 7, 1998.
Speaking with reporters in Ibadan, Oyo state, after the third south-west annual lecture titled, ‘Developing leadership abilities in youth’, Al-Mustapha said the existence of the tape was known to a few Nigerians.
He said those who threw him in detention plotted to destroy the video tape.
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Al-Mustapha said he was incarcerated for 15 years without given the opportunity to defend himself on the media.
“On October 21, 1998, I was arrested because of a video cassette, not because of the late Kudirat Abiola. But something happened, which a particular camera in the villa captured,” he said.
“So, they wanted to take the videotape and burn it so that Nigerians would not know what happened. That was the beginning of my travails.”
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“For 15 years, I didn’t have the chance to defend myself in newspaper, radio and television. So, the belief was Mustapha had committed an offence, even before my arrest. But the actual thing that happened to the late MKO Abiola is in that cassette that they want to see, that is why Mustapha was subjected to punishment and I was called names. They have wanted to know the whereabouts of that tape in the last 17 years.
“I appeared before 14 judges in Lagos. As soon as the matter was about to finish, they would stop it and take us to another court. For 15 years, I was in that state. Out of the 15 years, five years and two months, I served in detention with torture. The remaining was between Ikoyi Prisons, Kirikiri Prisons and Kuje Prisons.
“Many people, particularly lawyers, took money from those who were looking for the cassette. They would go to radio and television stations to rain abuses on me, rather than coming to court. But they did not know what was going on in the court of law.”
He also denied being involved in the death of Kudirat, Abiola’s wife, saying the Abiola family was very close family to him.
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Al-Mustapha alleged that Barnabas Jabila, better known as Sergeant Rogers, was influenced to give false testimonies against him.
Rogers was a member of the strike force and presidential bodyguard, which were specialised military squads believed to have been used by Al-Mustapha to get at the opponents of the Abacha regime.
Prominent personalities were killed under Abacha.
“On the late Kudirat Abiola, Rogers himself confessed in a court of law along with other witnesses how much money they were given. Rogers confessed he was told to do so. He was given money. He was given a house. He was given a car every six months, and he was promised to be taken outside Nigeria,” he said.
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“The plan was as soon as Lagos court pronounced me guilty and I was to be hanged, then they would rush me to prison and hang me without giving me the option to go for appeal. That was what happened.
“I thank God Almighty everything that happened in Lagos State Court was compiled and signed by all the 14 judges. We are putting it together. My father has already put the book together in three volumes. You will see them soon.”
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3 comments
There’s no iota of truth from anything that is of mortal man….Hamza Al-mustafa, you and all your people and other people that have stains of human blood in your hands, GOD ALMIGHTY in HIS fury shall make you all account for every drop of it, either here on earth or world beyond.
Let no man or spiritual dogmatism book deceive you, for no reasons at all GOD abhors shedding of blood. That of favor from GOD, you cannot find except through repentance in CHRIST JESUS.
You and your hitched-crooked stories can only deceive be fed to people that were born in and beyond the year 2000 that do not know you and your boss and your cronies. With the exception of blood soaked missions your boss asked you to carry out, you talk and write to exonerate yourself and cover your own blood gutted actions and evil master minded plans you yourself carried out without the fore knowledge of your boss, all these were done in order to gain his trust, confidence, and love for you. You and other people like you who were once ago had power and are still in the corridors of power have forgotten that ONE man whom no mortal eyes could see, HIM who owns and confers all power, position and tittle on mortals watches in apt secrecy and silent.
Let me tell you just one thing about GOD, and HIS mysterious ways, HE gives back to mortals whatever evil done and revisits sins of fathers upon their offspring to the next generations. Nothing and no man or power CAN stop HIM, HE is OMNIPOTENT, OMNIPRESENT, OMNISCIENCE and OMNISCIENT. HE is ALMIGHTY.
As much as I want to believe this testimony from Al-Mustapha, I just have the instinct that there is more to falsity in the reports over the years. He can vindicate his soiled name by releasing the video tape of that event.
At least, that would have been the road to recovery of his battered personality.
Your comment..If all that Hamza Al-Mustapha was accused of happens to be true with all the powers that be and all against him, and with death sentence, I believe Al-Mustapha would have been a dead man by now. So I believed everything he said and God is with him because it takes only God for one to be free of these type of accusations by one of the most powerful government in the universe.