The founder of Oodua People’s Congress (OPC),Dr. Frederick Fasehun, has described his support and trip to Kano with the recently acquitted Major Hamza Al-Mustapha as a quest for a handshake-across-the-Niger, saying that the trip was a request from Al-Mustapha to ensure that he(Fasehun) hand him over to his people safe and sound, through Governor Rabiu Kwakwanso and the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero.
Fasehun, who addressed a press conference yesterday in Lagos, also canvassed for legislation that would enable the inclusion of duration of trials for completing criminal prosecution.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos on July 12, 2013 reversed the death sentence passed on Major Hamza Al-Mustapha in January last year by a Lagos High Court for the murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola.
Speaking on his experience in Kano, he averred that: “In Kano, Governor Rabiu Kwakwanso described me as the ‘only bridge builder’ Nigeria has ever known.”
Fasehun who lamented the recurring issue of undue extension of trials without duration also urged the Judiciary to invest in modern equipment to speed up the dispensation of justice in the court system.
“The detention and trial of this Officer and his co-Accused represented an injustice on its own. It hardly happens in the civilised world. If a trial is unduly delayed, it may cause prejudice to the Defendant.
“Currently, the Nigerian Constitution and law books maintain an indecent silence on the duration of trials. Nigeria must hasten to copy “The United States’ Speedy Trial Act of 1974” that establishes time limits for completing the various stages of a federal criminal prosecution.
“Also, the Judiciary must invest in modern equipment to speed up the dispensation of justice in the court system”, he added.
The OPC founder also called for the probe and sanction of Justice Mojisola Dada of the Lagos High Court by the National Judicial Council, NJC.
His words: “Many a Nigerian simply wanted life for life, and demanded the head of Al-Mustapha and his co-accused Alhaji Lateef Shofohan for the blood of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola who fell to assassin’s bullets on June 4, 1996 around Seven-Up, Ikeja area of Lagos.”
“The judicial killing of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha would have been as evil as the cold-blooded killing of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola,” he said.
Cautioning the prosecutor, he said “The Lagos State Government must stop wasting taxpayers’ money and immediately dismantle the team it assigned to prosecute the case. Although it is the government’s right to pursue the case to the Supreme Court, not only will such a cause waste time and money, it will further fan the embers of hatred between the North and the South and prolong the psychological torture inflicted on an innocent man”, he noted.
