Ex-Nigerian dictator's aide released from prison after murder acquittal

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The two men who were set free by a Nigerian Court of Appeal on Friday for killing the wife of late politician and business mogul Moshood Abiola, have been released from one of the country's high security prisons in Lagos.

Hamza Al-Mustapha, aide to Nigeria's late military dictator Sani Abacha, and Lateef Sofolahan, aide to the late Mrs. Kuridat Abiola, walked out of the Kirikiri Maximum Security prison a few hours after they were discharged and acquitted of Kudirat's murder.

Both men, who came out within five minutes of each other, waved to a crowd of well wishers, most of them their family members, before they were driven away in the same car.

Al-Mustapha and Sofolahan have been in detention since 1999, three years after Kudirat, 45, was shot dead in the economic capital city of Lagos, and six years after her husband won a presidential election that was cancelled by the military.

On 30 Jan 2012, a Lagos court convicted both men of murder and sentenced them to death by hanging.
-0- PANA SEG/MA 12July2013