Form working with Abacha to attempting to free Abacha's goons from the long hand of the law, it seems Gen. Buhari's sense of justice is non-existent.
Abiola died in prison for the "crime" of winning a free and fair election, while Buhari was working for Abacha. Al-Mustapha is  facing murder charges that we all know he committed.
Buhari disappoints me completely at this point - 1984-85 seems to be a mere flash in the pan afterall

Tribune
Written by Dipo Laleye, Minna
Thursday, 22 July 2010

Former head of state and presidential aspirant of the Congress for Progress Change (CPC), General Mohammed Buhari, stormed Niger State on Wednesday,  calling for the immediate release of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha and others standing trial.

General Buhari, who was welcomed to Kontagora by supporters of the new party, said the incarceration of Major Al- Mustapha and others was too long and did not show fairness.

Buhari, who fielded questions from newsmen after inaugurating the party secretariat in the town, noted that  “for one to be facing trial for over 12 years was unfair and a miscarriage of justice.”

The presidential aspirant also commended President Goodluck Jonathan for the positive step he had been taking to give Nigeria a free and fair election, especially with the appointment of the Independent National Electoral Commission chairman, Professor Attaihiru Jega.

He specifically referred to the removal of some national commissioners of the electoral body by the president, because they were card-carrying members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), saying this showed the sincerity of the president to give Nigeria a credible election.

al-mustapha of all peope.i dont kow why the guy has not been executed all these years

No doubt, Al-mustapha and co are alleged to have cmmitted a crime. Being remanded in prison custody for over 10 years, makes the whole trial issue suspect. I am forced to ask whether our  justice system has become political? In another way, is our justice system tied to the apron-string of our political leaders?

What Buhari said is that a trial for 12 years is a miscarriage of justice. Is this true or False? We all know that they committed these crimes but they should face trial and get a judgement

actually, i agree with buhari - they should either convict mustapha and co or let them go

it has been ten years - they hold him any longer and people may not even remeber what he was jailed for

sort of like what happens to petty and other criminals whop spend years awaiting trial

i think they should be released too. The trial has dragged into 3 administrations. Let the guys go jare. Afterall wetin balogun and co did no pass dat one?

What miscarriage of justice? Buhari did not say speed up the trial, he said let them go. We know why it is difficult to provide the kind of "proof" needed in a law court - because these people basically ran our armed forces for 6 years. They were judge, jury, and executioner all at the same time. We know what they did, and they deserve more than they are getting.

Miscarriage of justice - Buhari needs to go tell that to Abiola, Saro Wiwa or the untold numbers that had life snuffed out of them during the their reign of terror.

You people complain about injustice, and yet do not shy away from encouraging the release of trigger happy goons into our midst. Who knows where they kept the rest of their stolen loot ready to wreck havoc on the nation once beyond prison walls.

Whatever happens to Al-Mustapha should be the least of anyone's problems. What we need to worry about is the nature of the person that will take the reign of rulership in Nigeria next. Buhari pupports to be a strict disciplinarian, but we always had doubts, and he has unflattering antecedents. In reality his main claim was the brief 1984-85 rule during which, despite some flashes, they showed a serious lack of a sense of justice.

With this kind of attempt at political talk it is clear that Buhari is NOT going to be a good president . I was hoping that with certain adjustments he might actually be one, but this is merely due to short memories - thanks to Gen. Buhari that is no longer the case. A small reminder of Buhari's sense of justice:

http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/human-rights-in-nigeria-the-buhariidiagbon-and-abacha-situations-compared-and-contrasted-666113.html
No sooner did Buhari/Idiagbon seize government than the infamous Decree Number Four (DN4) of 1984 was promulgated by the duo; Buhari/Idiagbon became famous for coming down heavily against the Nigerian press, making the report of truth a very serious offence in the country, not many will forget the terrible situation of Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor of the Guardian who were imprisoned for making a report on the Government.  The Buhari/Idiagbon regime would also executed Bernard Ogedengbe, Bartholomew Owoh and Lawal Ojulope for an offence committed by them as alleged by the regime after a national debate in spite of public pleas, the execution of these gentlemen were made possible by a retroactive decree courtesy of Buhari/Idiagbon regime.

Buhari and his Deputy would again promulgate another Decree called Decree Number two (DN2) of 1984 which made it possible for Tunde Idiagbon to detain anybody whether such person is a citizen of the country or foreigner, this decree stripped the court of law of the powers to depend the reason such person is being detained. In essence, the decree did not recognize the significance of the judiciary but was merely interested in achieving its aims of dictatorial tendencies. In what would later follow, the world became amused to hear the verdicts of 125 years imprisonments handed down to the regime suspects.

Buhari was also noted to have utilized excessive force in handling drug peddlers caught, as he issued death penalties to them in what political commentators believed should not have attracted death sentences, still death was the fate of several of these suspects in laws that resembled that of Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations.

The tactics of the Buhari/Idiagbon regime became too harsh for the survival of the people, with arbitrary creation of decrees to lead the regime but promulgated to harshly lure the Nigerian public into playing into the waiting ready-made hand of the regime. Victims who became preys of these draconian decrees were mostly detained and made to remain inside prisons for as many years as Buhari and Idiagbon pleased.

Ramsky:

What Buhari said is that a trial for 12 years is a miscarriage of justice. Is this true or False? We all know that they committed these crimes but they should face trial and get a judgement

oyb:

actually, i agree with buhari - they should either convict mustapha and co or let them go

it has been ten years - they hold him any longer and people may not even remeber what he was jailed for

sort of like what happens to petty and other criminals whop spend years awaiting trial

Your comment is closer to what you would expect Gen. Buhari, who is trying to become president to say, and promise to do, not just for Al-Mustapha (actually least for Al-Mustapha) but for our entire justice system. Instead he suggested that they need to be let go - the correct statement should have been "speed up the trial". There is no default let them go, once you are dutifully charged for a capital offence - it can take forever to decide. That is why there is usually something called "time served". Still, no matter how long Al-Mustapha serves before final judgement, he deserves more! That his concern was for Al-Mustapha is revealing a deeper problem that we better pay attention to before it is too late.

Did Balogun commit or get charged with murder? What is happening to Al-Mustapha is based on strong circumstantial evidence because were all witnesses. There is also recorded and confessional evidences. Still this may be hard to prove in a court of law, but this is not an ordinary case, these were the guys who ran our armed forces as judge, jury and executional for 6 years - may be longer. Looks like somebody want his goons back for the political fight that is brewing! Otherwise, the least of the corcern of anybody trying to do well as a president of Nigeria is Al-Mustapha's well-deserved travails for snuffing life out of people at will.

Gadols:

i think they should be released too. The trial has dragged into 3 administrations. Let the guys go jare. Afterall wetin balogun and co did no pass dat one?

mustapha has no case against the nigerian constitution rather it is a personal thing with obasanjo.
i hated mustapha with passion until his witnesses at oputa panel.
obasanjo and others are all military men and they all understand what it means to be under oath as a millitary man.
on the other, what case cld last this long? 11 yrs is more than enough period of time to start and finish any case in this world.
by now, mustapha shld either be a free man or be serving his jail term.
pdp led govt shld be able to establish their case or set this man free.

That's just our problem, we're all good historians and too much educated that every good materials available we must do reseacrh and make sure we find reasons to condem. Ok, who is that perfect candidate? Bring him and you'll be surprise when our researhers return. We are not suppose to be where we are today. Let's wake up.

How can you hold someone in prison without conviction for 12 years and thr trial is still on going? That must be the longest trial in the history of the world. They should release the guy now if they can't find something to convict him for 12 long years.
If they had found him guilty and sentence him to life, that would have been a different issue altogether now.
Nigerian jungle justice.
You can just imagine ordinary innocent people the rogue police picked up and lock them up for years on end without trial or even accusation of anything without anyone like Buhari to ask for them, until they roth and die in prison.

If your relative is missing for years, don't be surprised that the person is not dead, but locked up inside one of Nigerian gulag prison for nothing.

@akyus
We know that our choice, at least in this next election, is between the devil and the deep blue sea. Still, we want the "better" of the two options. We cannot fold our arms and fail to interrogate those are planning to rule us. Not after the Yar'adua fiasco, who, I must say, was supposed to be some kind of saint and promised "rule of law". By the time we started asking questions it was too late.

Now is the time to do our utmost to select the best of the lot that is available to us. From Buhari's antecedents and his focus on Al-Mustapha I am suggesting that we need to be careful about his sense of justice - my point is not really about Al-Mustapha! Buhari was an even closer witness, perhaps first-hand knowledge, of how Al-Mustapha and his goons ran Nigeria like a killing ground. Their methods, under the direction of Abacha, broke the Nigerian spirit to fight for their rights - people were still protesting in IBB days. A couple of years after Abacha and his gun men took over nobody dared raise a voice in public as it was to the gulag with your head. That spirit is just starting to come back after Yar'adua and his own goons showed us how far they were willing to take their joke.

Now that Buhari is trying to contest for the presidency, and despite the myriad of problems the next president will have to address, his public concern is the release of Al-Mustapha.

We are not looking for perfection, but for Nigeria to make progress we would need someone that has a keen sense of justice for the masses and whose feet we can hold to the fire to make sure he will do the job for which we are "hiring" him or her - that is how we need to see our government officials from now on. We need to be careful what we wish for this time around.

akyus:

That's just our problem, we're all good historians and too much educated that every good materials available we must do reseacrh and make sure we find reasons to condem. Ok, who is that perfect candidate? Bring him and you'll be surprise when our researhers return. We are not suppose to be where we are today. Let's wake up.

@Eziachi
I could care less about what happens to Al-Mustapha - he deserves it, but you are right that there are many others, and in fact it seems to be a practice, to treat people accused of criminal offenses this way in the Nigerian justice system. My point is really about Buhari's sense of justice as a NIGERIAN presidential candidate. Are we to assume that his thoughts on the shortcomings of the Nigerian justice system consists of getting Al-Mustapha released? What about the 1000s of REALLY innocent people languishing away in dingy prisions - is that how he is going to solve the problem? Shouldn't he balance concern over letting murderers and other criminals loose on our streets with ensuring swift justice? If he was to show himself to be a capable potential president he would have addressed Al-Mustapha's case only in passing, perhaps not even by name to avoid being seen as friends of these murderers, as part of a serious policy speech to bring justice to the Nigerian masses.

His call, coupled with his unflattering antecedents from 1984/85, is a big flashing [size=24pt]RED LIGHT[/size] warning.

Eziachi:

How can you hold someone in prison without conviction for 12 years and thr trial is still on going? That must be the longest trial in the history of the world. They should release the guy now if they can't find something to convict him for 12 long years.
If they had found him guilty and sentence him to life, that would have been a different issue altogether now.
Nigerian jungle justice.
You can just imagine ordinary innocent people the rogue police picked up and lock them up for years on end without trial or even accusation of anything without anyone like Buhari to ask for them, until they roth and die in prison.

If your relative is missing for years, don't be surprised that the person is not dead, but locked up inside one of Nigerian gulag prison for nothing.