My role gave birth to democracy, says Al-Mustapha

Former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late Head of State, General Sanni Abacha, Major Hamzat Al-Mustapha, on Sunday  said his action when Abacha died gave birth to democracy in the country.

Al-Mustapha spoke when he visited the leader of the Niger-Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Alhaji Mujahideen Asari-Dokubo, in Abuja.


Al-Mustapha stated that God used him to stabilize the country during the  confusion that followed Abacha’s demise.

The ex-CSO was recently discharged and acquitted of charges of murdering Mrs. Kudirat Abiola, wife of the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993, presidential election, MKO Abiola.

He said he could have taken over power when Abacha if he had wished to do so.

He lamented that some people took advantage of his humility and loyalty to the service of the country to punish him unjustly.

“Ours is to serve, preserve the country and I did. If I had wanted, after the death of General Sanni Abacha, this country was to witness another thing.

“But in our character, ours is to serve the country and I did. No body fired one bullet the day General Abacha died. God gave me the courage. But there was confusion and so many agitations at that time.

“But God used me to stabilize a course and it is the course that gave birth to this democracy. So, if I had not done so that time, we would have changed the course of history. But because we kept quiet, we were humble and committed to the country, people now turned it around.

“You know there were 10 panels I faced in five years. None of these panels found me guilty of anything. My offence was just one: Mrs. Abiola’s murder. All in all, I stayed for five years, two months in solitary detention, “Al-Mustapha stated.

On his part, Dokubo-Asari appealed to Al-Mustapha to forgive his accusers.

The former National President of Ijaw Youth Council (IYM) said that he was convinced that Al-Mustapha never killed late Mrs. Kudirat Abiola, the case that led to Al-Mustapha’s arrest and incarceration for about 15 years.

He said: “For me as a person, I was very convinced that you were not part of what happened because I was very close to Kudirat and I was very close to the Lagos group that was responsible for the judicial manipulation that was going on.

“I wrote those things and people said we were paid to write. People believe that anybody who says the truth or has a contrary opinion has been paid to do it.”