Family, senior advocates and civil society organisations have lashed out at the Lagos State Government over the closure of the murder case of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola by the Supreme Court, after it was established that the state abandoned its appeal against the acquittal of Maj Hamza Al-Mustapha (retd.) for nine years.

The apex court, in a unanimous judgment delivered by a five-man panel on Thursday, ruled that the state government failed to take any legal steps to prosecute its appeal within the period granted to it, thereby effectively abandoning the case.

The ruling sparked national outrage over the unresolved assassination of the wife of the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, the late Chief MKO Abiola.

Kudirat was assassinated in Lagos on June 4, 1996, at the height of nationwide protests against the annulment of the June 12 election by the regime of the late Gen Sani Abacha.

Her killing became one of the most symbolic tragedies of the pro-democracy struggle, representing the extreme measures deployed to silence opposition voices during military rule.

Al-Mustapha, the former Chief Security Officer to Abacha, alongside Mohammed Abacha and Lateef Shofolahan, was arraigned for conspiracy and murder.

On January 30, 2012, a Lagos High Court sentenced the trio to death by hanging.

However, the Court of Appeal, on July 12, 2013, overturned the conviction, citing weak and unreliable evidence, and discharged and acquitted the accused.

Unwilling to accept the verdict at the time, the Lagos State Government approached the Supreme Court in 2014 and was granted leave to appeal out of time.

A seven-man panel led by the then acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, ordered the state to file its notice of appeal within 30 days, following its claim that it needed time to review the case and challenge the appellate court’s findings.

However, nine years later, when the matter came up again before the Supreme Court, it emerged that the state government had neither filed the required processes nor taken any steps to pursue the appeal.

Delivering the lead judgment, Justice Uwani Aba-Aji described the failure of the Lagos State Government to act as “inexcusable”.

She noted that despite being duly served with hearing notices and being aware of the proceedings since 2020, the state neither entered an appearance nor offered any explanation for its absence.

The court held that nine years was more than sufficient time for the appellant to file the required processes.

Consequently, the appeal marked SC/CR/45/2014 was dismissed, while a related appeal, SC/CR/6/2014, was also struck out on the same grounds.

The ruling effectively brought to an end all legal efforts to reopen the prosecution of Al-Mustapha over the murder of Kudirat Abiola.

This, however, triggered reactions from the Abiola family, human rights groups, civil society actors and senior legal practitioners.

Reacting, the son of the slain activist, Jamiu Abiola, described the abandonment of the case as unjustifiable and painful.

He said that those responsible for her death and those who aided them to evade justice would face divine retribution, describing the nine-year delay as prolonged emotional torture for the family.

Explaining that 2026 marks the 30th anniversary of her assassination, Jamiu said, “This is one of those scenarios in which the more you look, the less you will see, hence speculations here and there. There was no reason for the case to be abandoned.

“My mother fought for democracy and was killed by agents acting on behalf of the military government of Abacha. She was a 44-year-old unarmed woman whose struggle was just.”

Speaking further, he said, “The same God who took Abacha away will punish all the culprits involved in her murder and this prolonged emotional torture of her children, and may God also punish every single person helping these murderers evade justice for any reason.”

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, also expressed disappointment, saying the Lagos State Government squandered public trust and resources by failing to follow through on a case that symbolised the struggle for democracy.

“Lagos had been the centre of the struggle for a better nation, and Mrs Kudirat Abiola was at the centre of that struggle. For that woman to die in that way and for the state to abandon the appeal is totally unfortunate,” he said, adding that history would not forgive such an act,” he added.

The Country Director of Amnesty International Nigeria, Isa Sanusi, also faulted the Lagos State Government, describing the Supreme Court ruling as a reflection of institutional failure.

He said, “It is really unfortunate. It means that the Lagos State Government has failed everyone. This is something that the government of Lagos should be ashamed of because the crime took place in Lagos and they have the responsibility to provide all support, all investigation and deploy all resources to make sure that there is justice so that her family will have closure.”

Sanusi called for an independent inquiry into atrocities committed during and after the June 12 struggle and compensation for victims’ families.

Similarly, the Convener of the Youth Rights Campaign in Lagos, Hassan Taiwo, popularly known as Soweto, described the development as “justice denied”.

“This is more or less the final nail in the coffin of June 12. What will follow now is that somebody like Al-Mustapha will even be given a presidential award, and before you know it, he becomes a candidate of major political parties and begins to win elections. Nigeria is a crime scene.”

However, a senior legal practitioner, Victor Okpara, SAN, said criminal prosecution depended largely on the quality of evidence, noting that if the evidence was weak, pursuing an appeal might have been futile.

“Sometimes you might have a good case, but you might not have the evidence. If the investigation is porous, there is very little a lawyer or a judge can do.”

Also, Olusegun Fabunmi, SAN, said changes in government and personnel could have affected the continuity of the case, adding that the state might have reviewed the matter and found no basis to proceed.

But human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, who in 2022 dragged the Federal Government before the ECOWAS Court of Justice in Abuja on behalf of the Abiola children over the unlawful killing of their mother, said the closure of the appeal did not exhaust the quest for justice.

Falana told Sunday PUNCH, “On June 4, 1986, Mrs Kudirat Abiola was brutally killed in Lagos by gunmen. Barnabas Jabilla Msheila, also known as Sergeant Rogers, a key member of General Abacha’s killer squad, later confessed that it was Major Hamza Al-Mustapha who gave him the gun with which he snuffed life out of Mrs Abiola, the wife of the winner of the 1993 presidential election, MKO Abiola.

“Major Al-Mustapha was tried, found guilty of the cold-blooded murder of Mrs Abiola and sentenced to death by the Lagos State High Court. However, he was freed by the Court of Appeal on the grounds that Sergeant Rogers later recanted and withdrew his confessional statement.

“But in the case of Mohammed Abacha versus The State, the Supreme Court confirmed that it was Al-Mustapha who gave the gun to Rogers for the killing of Kudirat. The justices then wondered why Rogers and others who took part in the murder had not been charged.

“Six years later, I was present at the Oputa Human Rights Panel of Inquiry when Sergeant Rogers again confessed that he gunned down Mrs Abiola on the instruction of Major Al-Mustapha.

“He broke down in tears and expressed regret that he was used to carry out the satanic assignments of killing Kudirat and attempting to assassinate Senator Abraham Adesanya, Chief Alex Ibru, Chief Segun Osoba and others. Till today, he has never withdrawn that oral testimony before the Oputa Panel.

When contacted, the Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Lawal Pedro (SAN), said he had just been informed of the ruling and would study the case files before making an official comment.

“I heard of it. It is an old case, and I became Attorney-General in 2023, so I don’t know what has happened, but let me look at the record. It is when I look at the record that I would be able to give you the full details,” he said. (Sunday PUNCH)