Our Reporter, New York
The Chief Security Officer (CSO) of late Nigerian military dictator General Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al Mustapha, has disclosed how Prof. Yemi Osinbajo allegedly taught Sergeant Barnabas Jabila Mshiola, aka Sergeant Rogers, to implicate him in the various high-profile political assassinations in the country during 1990s military junta.
Major Mustapha, the presidential candidate of the Action Alliance (AA) in the 2023 general election, made the allegations during his appearance as a guest in the presidential candidates series on 90MinutesAfrica with Rudolf Okonkwo and Chido Onumah.
Sergeant Rogers was a member of General Abacha’s Strike Force, a clandestine group of highly trained soldiers responsible for silencing critics of the regime. During cross-examination at the Oputa Panel, Sergeant Rogers confessed to having taken part in three assassinations under the direct order of Major Hamza Al Mustapha.
However, Al Mustapha, who was convicted by a Lagos High Court for the murder of Kudirat Abiola but later acquitted by the Court of Appeal, while reacting to questions during the interview, alleged that Sergeant Rogers had recanted the testimony he presented at the Oputa Panel. The retired major said that Rogers confessed that Vice President Yemi Osibanjo, the Attorney General of Lagos State at the time, coached him to incriminate Major Mustapha.
According to the former CSO to the late maximum ruler, “Sergeant Rogers and one Abdul Katanko came to the court and then revealed all that they were asked to say during the Oputa Panel.”
He continued: “Rogers made mention of the Lagos prosecutors, including the present vice president who was the Attorney General of Lagos State at that time. Rogers told the court that it was the Attorney General of Lagos State and some of the prosecutors, who I learned are now judges in Lagos High Court today, were the ones that taught him what to say,” Al Mustapha said.
He further stated that Prof. Yemi Osibanjo and Sergeant Rogers agreed to incriminate him and ensure the government killed him. “A justification for me to be killed was what brought Rogers to read that narrative. The confession of Rogers is in black and white, captured by the Lagos High Court,” he reiterated.
The presidential candidate of the Action Alliance also promised to release his book documenting the events surrounding his travails after the Supreme Court gives a judgment in the ongoing trial.
