Mustapha/Shofolahan death sentence: Appeal Court reserves judgment

The Court of Appeal in Lagos Monday reserved judgment in the appeal by Major Hamza Al-Mustapha and Lateef Shofolahan, challenging the death sentence handed them by a Lagos State High Court.

Al-Mustapha and Shofolahan are challenging the death sentence passed on them by the lower court on January 30, 2012, by Justice Mojisola Dada, for conspiracy in masterminding the murder of late Kudirat Abiola, wife of late Chief MKO Abiola.

The convicts were arraigned in October 1999 on a four-count charge bordering on conspiracy and their involvement in the 1996 murder of the deceased on the Lagos/Ibadan expressway.

Justice Dada of the lower court found them guilty of the offence, and accordingly convicted and sentenced them to death by hanging.

In their appeals, the appellants were contending that the death sentence passed on them by the lower court was unwarranted, unreasonable and a manifest miscarriage of justice, arguing that the trial judge erred in law by arriving at the conclusion that they conspired to kill Alhaja Kudirat on June 4, 1996.

The appellants faulted the judge’s treatment of the contradictory statements of Barnabas Jabila (aka Sgt. Rogers) and Mohmamed Abdul, as well as the reliance on the testimony of Dr. Ore Falomo on the bullet extracted from Late Kudirat.

More details soon