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.

SEGUN ADENIYI: Al-Mustapha: The Colour of Justice

The Verdict By Olusegun Adeniyi. Email, olusegun.adeniyi@thisdaylive.com

“The Don often quoted the saying, ‘Rather a hundred guilty men go free than one innocent man be punished,’ then added, ‘What a beautiful country.’”

The foregoing is taken from Mario Puzo’s novel, “The Last Don”, the gripping sequel to his classic, “The Godfather”. In that short narrative, Don Domenico Clericuzio was mocking the American justice system he took maximum advantage of to amass enormous wealth and power, while living above the law. Yet it is within the context of his sarcasm that one can easily situate the controversy currently trailing the acquittal last week of Major Hamza Al Mustapha and Alhaji Lateef Shofolahan, in the murder trial of Mrs Kudirat Olayinka Abiola.