Major al-Mustapha bombshell: M.K.O Abiola was murdered by "powers that be"

Special to USAfrica The Newspaper
NigeriaCentral.com and USAfricaonline.com

The Nigerian Human Rights commission led by the honorable retired Justice Chukwudifu Oputa came closer to a highly contentious view and some say "the real truth" on Thursday, November 21, 2000. On that day, Major Hamza al-Mustapha, the powerful chief of security and henchman for late dictator Gen. Sani Abacha, told the Nigerian human rights panel that multimillionaire politician Moshood Abiola, the presumed winner of Nigeria's June 12, 1993 presidential polls was murdered in July 1998 by unnamed "powers that be."

Will the Commission and the government "induce and cause" him to name those "powers that be"?

The 1993 election, judged by the international community to have been the most fair and credible one in Nigeria's history, at the time, was held under the electoral commission leadership of the University of Nigeria (Nsukka) and University of California (Berkeley)-trained professor of political science, Humphrey Nwobu Nwosu.

While many have commended the government of Nigeria's head of State, retired General Olusegun Obasanjo, for establishing the commission, there are some Nigerians who are demanding a similar probe of the Obasanjo years as a military dictator (1976-1979) - especially as regards the abuse of human rights, including those of Mrs. Kuti, the late mother of the irreverent Afro-beat genius, Fela Anikulapo Kuti and activist Dr. Beko Ransome Kuti.

It will be recalled that an international team of pathologists, picked by the Abiola family, concluded that Abiola's death on July 7, 1998, arose from a heart attack and natural causes.

U.S. Under Secretary of State Thomas Pickering and some members a U.S. delegation were meeting with Abiola and discussing terms for his release just before he died.

Al-Mustapha is on trial for two murders and one attempted murder. At least 85 people were killed and more than 600 arrested following Abiola's sudden death.

The al-Mustapha comment, without a doubt, has added yet another angle for those who argue that only a thorough and unqualified probe will reveal the facts of Nigeria's recent history. How far the commission (and the government) plan to go will be evident in the forthcoming weeks and as chapters of revelations unfold at the sittings.

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