Sources have told SaharaReporters that last week’s “judicial decision”
which set free of murder charges Hamza Al-Mustapha, the former Chief
Security Officer to late Nigerian dictator, Sanni Abacha, is owed to
President Goodluck Jonathan, who was following a “spiritual”
fortune-telling that would enable him to win the 2015 election.
Controversial
Lagos sect leader, Pastor TB Joshua, who has Mr. Jonathan eating out of
his hands, has been identified as the person who told the Nigeria
leader that his political fortune rests with setting Al Mustapha free.
In
addition, Mr. Joshua has also told Mr. Jonathan if he is to win in
2015, he needs to bring back to Nigeria James Ibori, the former Delta
State governor who is currently serving a 13-year jail term in the
United Kingdom.
After Mr. Joshua's spiritual “forecast” was told
to Mr. Jonathan, SaharaReporters sources say he instructed the Attorney
General and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke to take care of
the judges involved in the case, giving him a war chest of $2 million.
But
a judge, Justice Ibrahim Saulawa, a Northern Muslim, who was earlier
contacted to do the dirty job, refused to accept the bribe and removed
himself from consideration of the plan.
Another judge, Amina
Augie, was then drafted to handle the Al-Mustapha’s acquittal. Ms.
Augie, formerly known as Anna Graham, who is originally from Anambra
State and fourth wife of late Senator Adamu Augie of Kebbi State, took
the case and assembled some lawyers to help with drafting the judgement.
It
is also alleged that she got help from some members of the Nigerian
human rights community in drafting the judgement, which blamed the
prosecutors in Mr. Mustapha's case for doing a “shoddy” job. Among
other ridiculous arguments, Ms. Augie’s claimed in the judgement that
the prosecution couldn't provide the bullet that killed Mrs. Kudirat
Abiola in 1996.
In an interview with SaharaTV yesterday, Hafsat
Abiola, the daughter of the slain Nigerian democracy heroine, told
Omoyele Sowore of SaharaTV that the Court of Appeal has yet to provide
the lead judgement read by Justice Rita Pemu in the Al-Mustapha case to
the office of the Attorney General of Lagos State.
Strangely
however, Ms. Augie's concurring judgement was already made available to
subscribers of an exclusive Nigerian lawyer's listserve, "Rule of Law"
Nigeria. The judgement was provided to the listserv by the chairperson
of the Nigerian Human Rights Commission, Chidi Odinkalu, who had
initially derided a Saharareporters’ investigative report, which
revealed that a deal was in the works to set Al Mustapha free of the
murder charges two weeks before the judgement was hatched.
With
reference to bringing Ibori home, it is unclear how Jonathan will go
about it. The National Assembly has approved a prisoner swap law with
the United Kingdom but it is yet to be seen how Ibori might benefit from
that. Between his all-but-buried war against corruption and his deep
desire to retain the presidency, there may be no limit to what policies
he may come up with.
A source at the Presidency in Abuja told
Saharareporters that Mr. Joshua has so much control over Mr. Jonathan
right now that whatever he requests is granted without delay because the
president believes that the pastor holds the spiritual key to his
electoral success in 2015.
President Jonathan and his wife,
Patience have made several nocturnal visits to the pastor since becoming
president. Al Mustapha also visited the Pastor soon after he was
released from prison before heading to Kano to meet with family and
friends.
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