The Arewa youths have expressed disappointment in the failure of Lagos State Government to file its well publicised appeal against the Appeal Court judgment that cleared former Chief Security Officer to the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, retired Major Hamza Al-Mustapha of any complicity over the death of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola.
Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, wife of the acclaimed winner of annulled June 12, 1993 general election, was gunned down on the street of Lagos during the agitation for revalidation of her husband’s mandate.
The crisis led to the arrest and incastration of Al-Mustapha for about 15 years before an Appeal Court overturned the earlier death sentence passed on him and declared him innocent.
But last month, due to the insistence of the Lagos State Government to file an appeal against the judgment approached the Supreme Court of Nigeria which granted it 30 days to do so.
The Northern youths under the umbrella of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), expressed concern that, “till the expiration of the time permitted for the appeal by the Apex Court at the weekend, the Lagos Government did not come up with its appeal.”
In a statement from the AYCF President, Mallam Shettima Usman Yerima, they accused the Lagos government of deliberate propaganda to tarnish the reputation of an innocent soul.
According to Yerima, Al-Mustapha deserves an unreserved apology for causing him unnecessary stress and apology to the whole nation for the undue anxiety the time-wasting exercise caused the citizenry.
The concerned youths’ leader urged the Lagos Government to always do its homework properly before going into the public to embarrass a respectable man like Hamza Al-Mustapha or keep quiet.
And with the failure of the government to meet the Apex Court’s 30 days deadline, the AYCF President, who said it was an affirmation of Al-Mustapha’s innocence therefore advised the Logos government to seek forgiveness from God and from the generality of humanity for the way an innocent soul was deprived of his fundamental rights for 15 years of his life.
