OBJ’s letter: I was a victim of persecution — Al-Mustapha, says Jonathan didn't help secure his release

Former Chief Security Officer to late Head of State, Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, has said that he was a victim of persecution in his about 15 years ordeal of trial and detention in Nigerian prisons. He said all allegations raised by former President Olusegun Obasanjo as contained in his controversial letter to President Goodluck Jonathan were false.

Al-Mustapha spoke with newsmen in Abuja while leading Mohammed Abacha and others on a visit to Kuje Maximum Prison, Abuja, where he presented food items and other relief materials to the inmates as part of Christmas celebration.

He stated that the Appeal Court released him on merit after the case was unnecessarily prolonged and suffered several adjournments with false scripts and witnesses induced against him.

He said the case which was tried by 14 judges after being moved around in 32 detention centres across the country was unprecedented, adding that his eventual release was as a result of the realisation that he was only a victim of persecution.

When asked on what he could say about Obasanjo's letter to Jonathan that Jonathan assisted him to evade justice, Al-Mustapha said: "Nobody assisted me in my case. My matter was tried on its own merit; I was released on merit. As the case was from the beginning, scripts were written, witnesses were induced and contracted for and it dragged on and on with so many judges and series of adjournments, 14 judges, like I used to say, is unprecedented."

"At the end of the day, the Court of Appeal looked at the case where there was glaring persecution and arrived at what the law has provided. Nobody can say I was helped. I was not helped. My matter was treated on its own merit.

"All allegations in that letter as far as I can concerned, have their own meanings because of the time, the content and person and the person they are targeted to. It is left for Nigerians to look deeply and decipher.

"Mandela was convicted for murder, for treason, but at the end of the day, those who actually celebrated his conviction were the same people that came 27 years after to say that it was a wrongful action done against him. Similar things we have experienced even in our own cases, which have driven us to do what we have taken and God willing, we will continue to do much more," he said.