Against the backdrop of the recent Appeal Court verdict which gave Al-Mustapha his freedom after 14 years in detention, Dr. Frederick Faseun, President, O’dua People’s Congress, explained the rationale behind his support for the contentious development in this interview with Saturday Vanguard. Excerpt

The groundswell of comments trailing the discharge and acquittal of Al-Mustapha and Lateef Shofolahan does not seem to be letting up, as Director of Social Communications, Catholic Arch diocese of Lagos, Very Rev. Msgr. Gabriel Osu, has described the verdict as ‘an act of God.

WHEN the Court of Appeal overturned the death sentence passed on Major Hamza Al-Mustapha and Alhaji Lateef Shofolahan, setting two of them free, the nation was gripped by shock and disbelief.

HE knows PW2, Barnabas Jabila a.k.a. Sergeant Rogers. PW2 was serving in Jaji infanty centre and school, worked with the former head of state, Brigadier General Abdulsalam Abubakar closely, and this informed his nomination, that brought him to be a member of strike force into the Presidency.

Last Friday, the Court of Appeal, Lagos quashed the death sentence which Justice Mojisola Dada of the Lagos High Court handed Major Hamza Al-Mustapha and Alhaji Lateef Shofolahan over the death of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola. The appellate court said that the court below convicted the duo at all cost despite the prosecution’s failure to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.

Below is the judgment as delivered by the appellate court.