POLSCOPE WITH EDDY ODIVWRI: SO WHO KILLED KUDIRAT ABIOLA?

EDDY ODIVWRI

Penultimate Friday, the Appeal Court sitting in Lagos, discharged and acquitted Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, on the grounds that there were no evidences to nail him in the murder of Mrs Kudirat Abiola, wife of late Chief MKO Abiola. It was a truth-plaited judgment  that held many people in stitches, just as it triggered an eerie excitement and jubilation in the camp of those absolved of the crime. The celebrations that greeted the judgement in the camp of Al-Mustpha is better understood, when you recall that just last January, a Lagos High Court had found Mustapha and Lateef Sofolahan guilty of the crime, and pronounced them guilty with the penalty of death by hanging. But that Friday morning, all that changed.

After 14 years of incarceration and convoluted litigation, Mustapha, who was the face of the alleged crime, breathed the air of freedom.

The judgment clearly demonstrates the fact that the law is indeed an ass. We do not have the instruments and details to question the ruling of the learned judges of the Appeal Court. But we certainly can ask the question of who then killed Kudirat?

The public had thought it was rather a straight forward case. Kudirat was shot that morning of June 4, 1996. She was rushed to Eko Hospital, but the bullets shot into her temple ensured she won’t survive. She died. It was a season of anomie. The State was suspected of ordering several murders. People were being attacked left, right and centre. Nigeria, at the time, suddenly turned to one huge killing field. Alex Ibru, now late, had been shot. He survived, but lost a finger and an eye. Before him, one Sola Omosola, a Lagos airport Manager had been blown up to pieces in his car, around NAHCO, Lagos. Bagallda Kaltho, journalist was also blown up in his hotel room in Kaduna. Even Brig Gen Buba Marwa (rtd), then Military Administrator of Lagos State escaped two bomb attacks targeted at him.

Earlier, Pa Abraham Adesanya (now late) had also barely escaped a volley of bullets in Lagos Island when his Mercedes Benz car hosted nine bullet holes one morning. But the old man was spared.  Indeed, the Gestapo machine was revving at high pitch. Everybody knew where the bullets were coming from, but nobody could talk with authority.

That explains why it was a celebrated denoument when Barnabas Jabila alias Sgt Rogers and one Katako regaled Nigerians, with graphic details of how the killer squad called Strike Force (of which they were members), with Mustapha as Director of operations, attacked and killed several people, including the same Kudirat. I am told that Sgt Rogers later recanted his evidence, claiming the earlier testimonies were made under duress. Hmmmm…. If the squad did not kill Kudirat, who then did they strike?

No doubt, much water had passed under the bridge… and the bridge is broken.  I have been wondering why the case ended up the way it did. Was the prosecution weak and wonky? Were the witnesses intimidated or threatened and so withdrew? Law is not exactly science. So on what basis did the High Court find Mustapha and co guilty and sentenced them to death by hanging? Will Kudirat ever get justice, even in death? Her husband was denied the presidency he won, even her life and her husband’s were eventually cut short. Who killed them? The questions are many and the answers are uncertain. But what is certain is that Kudirat did not commit suicide, therefore the question remains: so who Killed Kudirat?