FOR spending 14 years behind bars, former Information Minister, Chief Edwin Clark, has described the ordeal of Major Hamza al-Mustapha as “sheer injustice”.
He also called for a review of the criminal justice system in the country.
The Ijaw leader said in a statement in Abuja: “I recall that sometime in November 2011, I appealed to the Federal Government and the Lagos State Government to pardon Al-Mustapha on the ground that the trial is becoming punitive and has taken over 12 years at the time.
“Now that he has been freed by the Court of Appeal, he should settle down, get integrated with other Nigerians and there should be spirit of forgiveness from both sides and no one should indulge in unnecessary politicking on the validity or otherwise of the court judgement”.
To him, al-Mustapha’s acquittal by the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division is justified.
He said as a lawyer for 50 years, it amounts to sheer injustice and gross abuse of natural and human rights to keep al-Mustapha as well as other inmates for a longer period than the time that the sanction for their charge would have been in event of return of guilty verdict.
The octogenarian, however, blamed a system that allows a situation where cases in court drag and suffer unnecessary adjournments for years.
Clark, therefore, called on the Federal and State Governments “to ensure that there is immediate review of criminal justice administration law and other enabling rules to ensure that there is no delay in the dispensation of justice.”
