The former Chief Security Officer to late Gen. Sani Abacha, Major. Hamza Al-Mustapha, on Tuesday told an Ikeja High Court how men of the Special Investigation Panel tortured him.
He also informed the court that the ex- leader of the Mobile Police in the Presidential villa, Chief Superintendent of Police, Mohammed Rabo Lawal was also tortured by the panel for their alleged roles in the attempted murder of The Guardian publisher, Mr. Alex Ibru about 12 years ago.
Testifying before the court at the resumed hearing of trial-within-trial on the voluntariness of Rabo Lawal‘s statements made before the SIP in 1999, Al-Mustapha said Lawal was induced, beaten and tortured by the panel officials in a bid to implicate him and others during their investigation.
Al-Mustapha, Lawal, the former Commissioner of Police Lagos State Command, James Danbaba, and ex-Zamfara State military administrator, Col. Jubrin Bala Yakubu are co-defendants in the trial being heard by Justice Mufutau Olokooba.
Led in evidence by his lawyer, Mr. Olalekan Ojo, Al-Mustapha told the court that Lawal was “an ulcer patient” considering his medical records when he was the head of presidential escort unit placed directly under his control.
According to Al-Mustapha, “The day we appeared before the SIP in Abuja, where they obtained our statements, we were taken from the cells to the torture room, subdued and then forced to say what you are told to say before the panel.”
Justice Olokooba adjourned the matter till February 18 for further hearing.
source:the punch news paper
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