Written by Yejide Gbenga-Ogundare - Lagos
Saturday, 30 November 2013 00:55


The Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos, on Friday, struck out an application filed by the Lagos State government seeking leave to appeal its judgment which acquitted Major Hamza Al-Mustapha and Lateef Shofolahan.

When the case was called on Friday, counsel from the Lagos State Ministry of Justice, Mr Femi Adamson, informed the court of a pending application seeking the leave of court to appeal its judgment.

Adamson, however, in an oral submission, prayed the court to strike out the application, which had also been withdrawn by the respondents, due to effluxion of time.

Al-Mustapha, who is the former Chief Security Officer to late General Sani Abacha, and Shofolahan, a former aide to late Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, were sentenced to death on January 30, 2012, by Justice Mojisola Dada, of a Lagos High Court sitting in Igbosere, Lagos State.

It will be recalled that the appellate Court had, on July 12, 2013, quashed the death sentence, for failure of the prosecution to establish a charge of murder against the appellants.

He noted that by the provisions of the rules of court, such application for leave to appeal ought to have been filed before the expiration of 30 days after the judgment.

“My lord, we have an application before this court, dated August 12, 2013 and filed on the same date, for leave to appeal the order of this court delivered on July 12, 2013.

“This application has however been overtaken by time, and so, this court lacks jurisdiction to entertain same. We hereby withdraw this application before your lordship, and we shall ensure that we file all necessary processes before the Supreme Court,” Adamson said.

The application for withdrawal was not opposed by counsels to the defendants, Mr Adedayo Adedeji and Mr Olalekan Ojo.

The lead judge of the appellate court, Justice Shagbaor Ikyegh, in a short ruling, struck out the application.

“This application, having been withdrawn, is accordingly struck out,” he ruled.

The appellate court, in setting aside the judgment of the trial court, on July 12, 2013 held that the prosecution in totality, failed to establish a charge of conspiracy and murder against the appellants.

The lead judge of the court, Justice Rita Pemu, had held that it was foolhardy and unreasonable for the trial court to have so swiftly convicted the appellants when it was very evident that the prosecution had a bad case.


http://www.tribune.com.ng/news2013/index.php/en/news/news-headlines/item/27502-lagos-withdraws-application-to-appeal-judgment-of-al-mustapha-shofolahan.html

The North will be out of favour with the West should this judgement be overturned. Probably, building bridges and political alignment require more sacrifice than meet the eyes.

There is no reason why this murderer Major Hamza Al-Mustapha should go absolutely free if not on political consideration as against justice and rule of law.

This is always my reason for questioning the SAN-ship of fashola.......withdrawing&losing of all the court cases he initiated.

the warrior72: This is always my reason for questioning the SAN-ship of fashola.......withdrawing&losing of all the court cases he initiated.

Fashola graduated from university of Somalia, mind you.

Longeria: Fashola graduated from university of Somalia, mind you.

I did not say he did not graduate from fro Benin republic, what I said is, his induction into senior advocate of Nigeria?, is questionable

Waste of time. In nigeria, as long as you are rich and have 'connections', you'll will walk away free from your crimes or at most, pay a small token(bribe/bail). If there's justice in the world, this man ought to shot point blank at close range. If alamesiya could walk scot free with all the damning evidence against him, every al mustapha can do so too.

Fashola and his Amala and Ewedu SAN-ship "egwu di kwa"