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Hundreds of youth from across Nigeria on Thursday
staged a peaceful protest in Kano to demand the immediate release of
Hamza Al-Mustapha, a former chief security officer to the late Head of
State, Sani Abacha.

The youth, led by one Igwe Martins, converged under
the aegis of the ‘Movement for the emancipation of Hamza Al-Mustapha’
and carried an effigy of a human corpse in a traditional casket marked
‘rule of law is dead’.

The youth, who carried placards with inscriptions
such as ‘Goodluck, please free Al-Mustapha’, ‘Free Al-Mustapha’ and ‘12
years is too long, enough of this persecution’ marched through the
Kofar Nasarawa and state roads to the Kano State government house
complex, said the continued incarceration of Hamza Al-Mustapha is no
longer justifiable.

At the palace of the Emir of Kano, Mr Martins called
on Nigerians to explore all means of reaching out to relevant
authorities, aimed at ensuring the immediate release of Mr Al-Mustapha.

“The continuous detention of our son, Al-Mustapha,
has put the northern elements into serious issues of disharmony and
dilemma. Today, it has become absolutely imperative for every patriotic
northerner to sit down and truly answer the question: what wrong have
we done to Nigerian government?

“What is the similarity between Al-Mustapha’s case of
attempted murder and that of the OPC’s Ganiyu Adam and Frederick
Fasheun for the murder of seven policemen in 2002/03? The northern
youth have not forgotten the established cases of treason against the
likes of Asari Dokubo in 2006; Henry Okah in 2008; Nwazurike in
2007/08, etc.

“Today, all these people are freely enjoying their
freedom with their family and friends resulting from the general
amnesty granted by the government of Nigeria.

Political detention

Mr Martins also said the continuous detention of Mr Al-Mustapha is politically motivated.

Wanban Kano, Abass Sanusi who represented the Emir of
Kano, acknowledged that the issue of the continuous detention of the
soldier deserves the sympathy of any well meaning person in the polity.

He, thereby, assured that the Emirate council would
first explore the reason why the Al-Mustapha case has dragged this
long, before arriving at a decision to finally wade into the matter.

“The Emirate council is keen on ensuring justice and
fairness in this matter,” he said. “We would always do everything to
protect the lives and properties of our citizens.

“It is godly to love your neighbour as you would love yourself. We
plead for more time so that we can know why this case is taking too
long to decide. That is the only way we can see how we can assist you.”