KUDIRAT'S MURDER: Al-Mustapha, Shofolahan to die by hanging

                                    Alhaji Shofolahan, Late Alhaja Kudirat Abiola and Major Hamazat Al-Mustapha

AFTER about 13 years on trial for the murder of wife of the late Chief M.K.O Abiola, Kudirat, former Chief Security Officer to the late General Sani Abacha, Major Hamzat Al-Mustapha and the Protocol Officer in the campaign organisation of the late Chief Abiola, Alhaji Lateef Shofolahan, were, on Monday, sentenced to death by a Lagos High Court sitting at Igbosere.
The court, presided over by Justice Mojisola Dada, found Al-Mustapha and Shofolahan guilty of murder charges and sentenced them to death by hanging.

In her judgment, Justice Dada held that, in view of the overwhelming evidence against them, the duo were guilty of the conspiracy to murder and murder of the late Alhaja Kudirat Abiola on June 4, 1996, preffered against them by the Lagos State government.
According to her, it was clear from the evidence before the court that Al-Mustapha invited to his office, Sergeant Barnabas Jabila (Rogers), who shot sporadically at Kudirat for a special assignment in Lagos.
Justice Dada added that the fact that Al-Mustapha showed Rogers a special gun that looked like MP5 and asked if he could handle it showed that there was a deliberate act to carry out a wicked action.
She also stated that the evidence of Jabila and Mohammed Abdul (Katako), who drove Jabila on the day Kudirat was murdered was reliable in the dispensation of justice. The court posited that the evidence of Jabila was a special one and it deserved a special consideration.