Ogun ACN hails death verdict on al-Mustapha, Sofolahan

THE Ogun State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) yesterday hailed the Lagos High Court judgment which sentenced Major Hamza al- Mustapha, the former chief security officer to the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, to death by hanging.

Also sentenced to death by the Lagos High Court was Alhaji Lateef Sofolahan, an aide to the late Mrs. Kudirat Abiola.

Both were found guilty of the 1996 killing of Mrs Kudirat Abiola; wife of the acclaimed winner of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election, the late Chief MKO Abiola.

The ACN said the death penalty slammed on Mustapha and Sofolahan portends a “ray of hope for credible dispensation of justice in the country.”

In a statement by its spokesman, Mr. Sola Lawal, the party said the judgment which came when every hope was lost in the ability of the judiciary to conclusively dispense justice to the killers of Mrs. Abiola, has rekindled confidence in the nations judicial system.

It noted that the verdict of Justice Mojisola Dada did not only unravel the mystery behind the murder of Mrs. Kudirat, who was felled by assassins’ bullets in her fight for the enthronement of true democracy, but  has also unearth the dastardly machinations of top government officials to forcefully hold on to power, using the people as pawns.

The party further said the death sentence passed on al-Mustapha and Sofolahan will go a long way to assuage the pains suffered by Nigerians for as long as the June 12 imbroglio lasted as well serve as a soothing balm to the Abiola family, which lost MKO and Kudirat to the mindless plots of the likes of the convicts.

The statement reads: “The pains of the June 12 crisis will forever be with us as the military not only annulled a widely accepted result of the presidential election but also brutally descended on voices of dissent against the barbaric and shameless act.”

Culled from: The Nation