Children of the late Kudirat Abiola, wife of the winner of the June 12 1993 presidential election, Chief Moshood Abiola, on Tuesday kicked against claims by former Chief Security Officer to late Head of State, Sanni Abacha, Major. Hamzat Al-Mustpha, that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, caused the killing of their mother.
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In a statement made available on Tuesday, the children said Mustapha killed their mother using one of his hitmen, Sergeant Barnabas Jabila Rogers.
In the statement signed on behalf of other children by Khafila Abiola, the children said attempts to re-write history by placing the burden of the assassination on Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is way off the mark. They claimed that Rogers himself had told the Oputa Panel that he killed Kudirat Abiola on the orders of Major Mustapha, now retired. They said Mustapha never countered Rogers’ claims at the time.
Kudirat Abiola(m), Al-mustapha (r), St. Rogers
The children said Rogers freely stated that he assassinated the woman and attempted to murder Senator Abraham Adesanya
and Chief Alex Ibru, late Publisher of The Guardian newspaper, based on the instructions given to him by Major Al-Mustapha.
They noted that evidence of Sergeant Rogers was not challenged by Al-Mustapha and his lawyers at the Oputa Panel and that the Lagos State High Court convicted and sentenced the armed agents of Al-Mustapha to imprisonment for the attempted murder of Senator Abraham Adesanya.
The statement reads:
The Lagos State High Court also convicted and sentenced Al Mustapha and his accomplices to death for the cold-blooded murder of our mother. Their subsequent acquittal by the Court of Appeal was most likely politically motivated.
“The appeal filed against the judgment is currently pending at the Supreme Court.
“However, Al-Mustapha may be counting on the pervasive culture of impunity in Nigeria to not only attempt to deny his dastardly role in the assassination of a defenceless woman; but to also now contemplate running for office, along with Mohammed Abacha, who was alleged to have provided his driver to convey the assassins to carry out the mission.
“Impunity lays waste to the promise of the democracy for which our dear mother paid the ultimate price. As those that oversaw her assassination now seek to rewrite the history of what they did, we are forced to seek justice for our beloved mother within a jurisdiction not for to the political games that hold sway in Nigeria.
“Justice may be delayed but it must not be denied”, the statement concluded.
