Yakubu Musa
8 August 2001
Kano — The family of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, the detained former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, have demanded for the immediate arrest of Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, the immediate former military ruler for his alleged role in the death of the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola.
The spokesman of the family, Alhaji Hadi Mustapha, a younger brother to the former CSO, who addressed newsmen yesterday in Kano, pointed out that "unless government is trying to portray Abdulsalami as a sacred cow, his arrest is the best at the material time."
"The former head of state was alleged to have not only looted the treasury but also, masterminded the state murder of Chief M.K.O. Abiola, a great pan-Nigerian," he noted.
According to Hadi, if the government cannot order Abdulsalami's arrest, it should better release all the "political detainees," including his brother.
"Why has the Federal Government refused to order the arrest of Gen. Abdulsalami for prosecution on the basis of the gravity of those allegations?" he queried.
"If Abdulsalami cannot be arrested to answer charges then all the political detainees should also be given an air of freedom to breath.
"We are constrained to believe that some people are certainly above the law. If these were not so, why would the government arrest and detaine some Nigerians on the basis of verbal testimony?"
"As a concerned citizen, I call on President Olusegun Obasanjo to allow all those political detainees to walk home freely if he is not prepared to do justice by making Gen. Abdulsalami join them in prison," he said.
Speaking further, Hadi said: "With the recent disclosure at the Oputa panel, it is clear to Nigerians now that Gen. Abdulsalami is not a hero of democracy, which we have hitherto accredited to him.
"It was Gen. Abdulsalami who announced that there were coups in 1995 and 1997.
"The same Abdulsalami was convening authority of the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) and Special Military Tribunal (SMT) which convicted the alleged coupists. The same Abdulsalami insisted at the PRC meeting that the convicts including President Obasanjo that they should be summarily executed. "But like a chameleon, he was the same man who ordered them released when it suited his purpose and the same Gen. Abubakar handed over power to one of them."
The Oputa panel had during its sitting in Abuja last month summoned former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar to appear before it to answer varied allegations impinging on his integrity.
Although Abdulsalami was accused of looting the treasury to the tune of trillions of naira, he did not appear before the panel, to clear his name or explain his role in the death of the late businessman-politician, Chief M.K.O. Abiola.
Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim said Monday that neither the Presidency nor the National Assembly can compell Abdulsalami and past leaders to appear at the panel.
"It is neither the business of the Presidency nor that of the National Assembly or Senate President. Oputa panel knows how to go about it; it is the business of the panel. They will go about their business in their own way; they have a mandate and they will go about it according to their mandate," Anyim said.
President Obasanjo in recent comments took the retired generals to task for not taking the human rights panel serious. "I set up the commission and I believe it should be taken seriously ... To give the commission the importance it deserves, if they call me again for anything I will go," adding that "anybody who is invited should go there. Not appearing is not what I want to see or what the country wants to see."
Only last week, the President asked Abdulsalami and others who have refused to come forward to clear themselves of allegations of wrong doings during their regimes, to do so, if they were not to do great damage to their reputation and family. "If they don't go, they will be doing the most damage to themselves and their families," he had said.
In the same vein, the panel chairman, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa had in the previous week advised the former leaders "to come and state their own side," insisting, however, that if the affected Heads of State continued to flout the summon to appear, "we have a way of making them appear."
Oputa said that the panel had before now not used its power to order the arrest of the former leaders because "they (former leaders) should be treated with respect. In advanced cultures, they are treated with respect."
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2001 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
