SAN FRANCISCO, August 13, (THEWILL) – The Lagos State Government on Tuesday ended the speculations over its next move in the case against the former chief security officer to the late military dictator, Sanni Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, over the murder of Kudirat, the wife of the acclaimed winner of the June 2003 presidential election, Chief MKO Abiola.
The state’s Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Ade Ipaye, disclosed at a monthly media briefing on law and order which held at the Government Secretariat in Alausa, Ikeja that it had taken the case to the Supreme Court following the July 12 Court of Appeal judgement which set the two accused in the case, Al-Mustapha and his alleged accomplice , Alhaji Lateef Shofolahan, free.
A Lagos High Court had earlier sentenced Al-Mustapha and Shofolahan to death, but the Appeal Court judgement of July 12 quashed the judgement and set the duo free.
The commissioner, who also spoke on issues of under-aged prisoners, awaiting trial inmates and the amnesty international report on the recently demolished Badia East settlement, said the government had embarked on ways of identifying under age defendants in the criminal justice system.
The commissioner disclosed that the ministry of justice recently paid a visit to Kirikiri prisons where two under age prisoners were identified, adding that assistance was underway for those displaced at Badia even as he warned residents of the state against settling in illegal developments.
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