The Chief Security Officer to the late military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha and Alhaji Lateef Sofolahan will today know their fate as the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division reviews the
judgement of a Lagos High Court which convicted them of murder.

The Appellate court led by Justice Amina Augie had on June 10 reserved judgement after the counsels to the parties, appellants and the defendants, had adopted their written addresses.

The men challenged a death sentence passed on them  on January 30, 2012, by Justice Mojisola Dada of a Lagos High Court  who found them guilty of conspiracy and murder of  Alhaja Kudirat, wife of late Moshood Abiola, the acclaimed winner of June 12 1993 presidential elections.

Counsel to Al-Mustapha, Mr Joseph Daudu (SAN), while adopting his address, had urged the court to allow the appeal and set aside the judgement of the trial court.

In his argument, Daudu said that the trial court erred in law to have based its judgement on the testimonies of PW1 and 2, which were contradictory.

“The testimonies of Prosecution Witnesses 1 and 2 were inconclusive and contradictory as the court drew inferences from these contradictory statements, to establish the guilty of the Appellants.

“It is my submission that those inferences, upon which the court based its judgment, are merely political evidence formulated by the respondent and which the trial court ought not to have considered.

“I therefore urge the court to allow this appeal and quash the judgement of the lower court” Daudu submitted.

Counsel to Shofolahan, Mr Olalekan Ojo, aligned himself with the submissions of Daudu.

But In his response, counsel to the respondent, Mr Lawal Pedro (SAN) urged the court to dismiss the appeal and uphold the judgement of the lower court.

Pedro argued that apart from the evidence of PW1 and 2, there were other bits of evidence which supported the counts of conspiracy and murder. He urged the court to dismiss the appeal for lack of merit.

(Leadership)