Al-Mustapha Retracts Earlier Statement, Claims It Was Made Under Torture

Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, former Chief Security Officer to late General Sani Abacha has denied the October 13 1999 statement he made to the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) where he admitted supplying the guns that killed Chief M.K.O. Abiola’s wife, Kudirat. During his trial yesterday Maj. Hamza Al-Mustapha declared that the statements were dictated to him while he was under physical and psychological  torture involving his father, his younger brother and his immediate family. He said “I made it  under duress, physical and serious torture. This is an SIP statement, not my own. I only made it to save my family, my life and that of my younger brother. I made 28 statements including this one under severe torture. I had to give up and succumb to the dictation of the SIP.”

Despite the defence counsel’s objection to the statement being tendered in court on grounds that the accused (Al-Mustapha) had been consistently saying that the document was a product of torture and that he was forced against his wish to write it,  Justice Dada held, “the document being not a confessional statement is admissible. The defendant has even made a retraction and as such is not qualified to be subject to trial within trial”. The document was admitted as exhibit ID5.

In the statement Al-Mustapha was quoted as saying, “I have been shown the copy of statement made by Mohammed Rabo Lawal, former OC MOPOL, dated October 12, 1999. I wish to state as follows:

“That it is true that Sarkin Sasa here in Abuja introduced Alhaji Lateef (Shofolahan) to me as an informant. I, in turn introduced him (Alhaji Lateef) to Mohammed Rabo Lawal.

“At a time Alhaji Lateef was introduced to me we had very few officers and non-commissioned officers in the security department. So Rabo Lawal, the OC MOPOL, was already tasked to go to Lagos with the view to monitor the planned NADECO rally in Yaba (Lagos), what was reportedly organised to destroy Abacha’s rally in Lagos.

“The Late C-in-C asked me to send Mohammed Rabo Lawal to Lagos for the surveillance. The reason for nominating him was purposely because he was drawn from Dodan Baracks MOPOL unit to Abuja, that makes him familiar with Lagos.