Why I support Al-Mustapha- Fasheun

Founder of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Dr Fredrick Fasehun, has declared that late Alhaja Kudirat Abiola was a staunch member of the organisation.

Fasehun made the claim, on Friday, in Lagos, at a press conference he held to clarify his support for Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, who was acquitted by a court of appeal in Lagos over the assassination of Kudirat.

The OPC boss said despite the fact that some quarters had tried to crucify him for his stance, his sympathy remained with the Abiola family, especially the children of Alhaja Kudirat, wife of late Chief MKO Abiola.

“I knew Alhaja Kudirat personally. Maybe we can say it for the first time publicly: She joined OPC at the dawn of the group, and actively encouraged the growth of OPC. We worked together in NADECO. And throughout, Kudirat proved to be a woman of uncommon courage, a true Amazon. She did not deserve to die.  

“Ironically, I was in detention for my role in OPC when she fell to the assassin’s bullet in 1996. The killing of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola diminished all of us.

“Like her family and the rest of the world, I demand justice for her cruel killing. I demand life for life – the life of her killers for her life. But not just anyone should pay for that evil, least of all an innocent man,” he said.

Explaining that he had a record of fighting injustice no matter who is involved, Fasehun stated that this informed his role in defending such personalities like a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mrs Patricia Etteh; Uzoma Okere, Olusegun Obasanjo, the Southern-Owned Banks, Oladimeji Bankole, Nuhu Ribadu, M.K.O. Abiola, June 12 and many others at different times in the past.

He added that it “would have been opposite to my character to stay aloof in the case of Al-Mustapha, despite his serving in the General Sani Abacha government, a regime that detained me and destroyed my health and my businesses.”

http://www.tribune.com.ng/news2013/index.php/en/news/item/17138-why-i-support-al-mustapha-fasehun