The Lagos State government has asked the
Supreme Court to set aside the July 12, 2013
judgment of the Court of Appeal which discharged
and acquitted Major
Hamza Al-Mustapha of the the murder of Alhaja
Kudirat Abiola, The Guardian reports.
Kudirat was a wife of the presumed winner of the
June 12, 1993 presidential election, the late Chief
Moshood Kashimawo Abiola.
In place of the Appeal Court judgment, the Lagos
State government urged the apex court to uphold
and restore the death sentence by hanging, which
was
earlier placed on the former Chief Security Officer
(CSO) to the late Head of State, General Sani
Abacha, by a Lagos High Court on January 30,
2012.
Al-Mustapha, Mohammed Abacha and one Lateef
Shofolahan were arraigned before a Lagos High
Court on a two-count criminal charge of conspiracy
to
commit murder and the murder of the Alhaja
Kudirat Abiola on June 4, 1996 in Lagos State.
In the High Court judgment delivered in 2012 by
Justice Moji Dada, the accused persons were found
culpable as charged and sentenced to death by
hanging.
The judgment was later set aside in April 2012 by
the Court of Appeal, for the review of the trial and
the conviction. The three Appellate Court justices, in
a unanimous judgment, not only voided the
decision of
the High Court, they went further to discharge and
acquit the accused on the ground that the evidence
against them was not strong enough to warrant the
death sentence on them.
But the Lagos State government, in a bid to reopen
the case, filed a notice of appeal at the Supreme
Court, asking for the permission of the court to
allow it to
challenge the findings of Appeal Court Justices
Amina Adamu Augie, Rita Nosakhare Pemu and
Fatimo
Omoro Akinbami on the ground of miscarriage of
justice in the matter.
The state prayed the apex court to allow it to
exercise its constitutional right to test the validity of
the decision of the Appeal Court.
It added that its ground of appeal raised arguable
legal and factual issues, especially the question of
whether
there was any direct or circumstantial evidence
establishing the guilt passed on Al-Mustapha in the
murder case.
Lagos State justified its lateness in filing the appeal
on the ground that it set up two legal teams to
review the circumstances of the case and the
verdict of the Court
of Appeal. The government held that it took a long
time for the two legal teams to present their
findings and recommend that an appeal case could
be filed and
sustained.
However, the matter could not go on after it was
raised by the counsel to the Lagos State
government, Mr. J. I. Jacobs. Shortly after Mr.
Joseph Daudu (SAN) announced his appearance for
Al-Mustapha, a
member of the five-man panel of Justices, Centus
Chima Nweze, asked to be excused out of the case.
Justice Nweze’s ground was that he had
participated actively in some aspects of the matter
at the Court of Appeal and as such, it would be
morally wrong and
improper for him to participate in the same matter
at the apex court.
Daudu did not object to the request, which
prompted Justice Bode Rhodes – Vivour to adjourn
the matter till January 12, 2017 for a full panel to
determinewhether the court will allow the appeal to
be heard,
having been filed out of time.

Source: www.versatilereporters.com/2016/11/lagos-state-begs-supreme-court-to-kill.html?m=1