On the surface, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, arguably the most powerful and influential Major in the history of Nigerian Army and perhaps amongst the array of gifted and intelligent officers the army has had in history, is a happy family man, with a ‘caring, dedicated and reliable wife’, one who has remained connected and committed to his extended family, friends and associates and one that cannot be easily manipulated by a fellow human being and less expected, a woman.
Beyond what Nigerians generally know on the surface about the once powerful Chief Security Officer (CSO) to late General Sani Abacha, Al-Mustapha’s life as an army officer, during his incarceration and even now after he was released from prison, is a life of many self inflicted tragedies and one that requires the prayers and possible intervention of all those that love him before it is too late, before he is wholly consumed by the very person that always claims to love him even more than his own parents; the person directly responsible for the frustrations and eventual death of his parents. That person is his own ‘wife’, Hafsat Al-Mustapha.
Readers will certainly be surprised by the time they are finally through with this piece. They will probably be convinced that the summary of this piece is a contribution from a credible and reliable insider that freely offered to contribute in the hope that Al-Mustapha, a fine and unassuming gentle man will be finally rescued by our collective prayers. It is also an attempt to alert Nigerians that contrary to the general notion craftily fueled and created by Al-Mustapha’s ‘wife’, the likes of Obasanjo’s, Gen. Abdulsalami, Maryam Abacha etc are not the real enemies of the Nguru born army officer and are indeed not the actual threats to his life and career but his ‘wife’, Hajia Hafsat. This will indeed sound unbelievable and ridiculous to many particularly some of us that are privy to the intrigues behind the persecution and incarceration of Al-Mustapha. Gen. Abdulsalami is on the surface instrumental but what actually brought about the crisis between the former head of state and several other generals with Al-Mustapha? Hafsat.
To many of us insiders Al-Mustapha, for reasons that have to do with the unfaithfulness, greed and the over ambition of Hafsat, has been practically possessed and hypnotized by her and as a result he is disconnected and separated from virtually all those that are not 100 percent loyal to her including his father and mother and even his biological brothers and sisters, close friends that are regarded by Hafsat as potential threats that will undermine her insatiable desire to perpetually possess him and expose her many years of evil.
The offense of Al-Mustapha’s late parents before Hafsat is for vehemently rejecting his proposed marriage to her when he was 26 years old as a lieutenant in the Nigeria Army. They had valid and justifiable reasons for rejecting Hafsat. Her history speaks for itself. She was eleven years older than the young Al-Mustapha and a mistress to some of his senior officers who are now retired army generals. Besides her immoral life in the barracks where she met Al-Mustapha and which made his parent to reject her, Hafsat was dismissed from Queen Amina College Kaduna in 1967 when the authorities of the school discovered she was pregnant. She was then in form 4 now SS1. After her dismissal from Queen Amina College, Hafsat went to Lagos and stayed with the owner of her pregnancy, one Gaya. Gaya, who is now late, is a Christian and for the purpose of convincing Gaya to accept the unborn child and marry her she converted to Christianity. But Gaya rejected the bastard child when she finally gave birth to a boy in 1968. Hafsat had no other choice out of frustration than to relocate from Lagos to the North again. She named the bastard child who happens to be my childhood friend, Jamilu. Jamilu is today 46 years old, precisely 8 years younger than her self acclaimed husband, Major Al-Mustapha who is now 54 years old. Till date it is on record that Hafsat has resisted every effort by her child, Jamilu, to know his biological father while Al-Mustapha, who is almost his age, was forced by her to shoulder and accept all the responsibilities of Jamilu as a foster father. Hafsat is facing the challenge of disclosing the real father of her 46 years old son, Jamilu, and to provide evidences if she indeed got the child through wedlock. Because of her consistent failure to tell him his real father Jamilu has fought with his mother several times. At a time Jamilu became very disturb and frustrated because even during childhood some of us are in the habit of calling him a bastard child because we didn’t grow to know his father. Out of frustration and because of the immoral life style of his mother, Jamilu became very stubborn and a drug addict and has continued to remained so up to his present age. He is also not happy and fought with his mother several times because of the manner she is treating and possessing Al-Mustapha. Jamilu knows virtually everything the mother is doing to dictate the tune in Al-Mustapha’s life. He even threatened to expose her and tell Al-Mustapha the dirty secrets he knows about his mother’s acts of infidelity and romance with sorcerers. When Hafsat became convinced that her 46 years old son knows so much and may expose her, and typical of her attitude of finding every means of getting rid of anybody that becomes a threat she sent Jamilu packing from her house. As at this moment Jamilu has decided to leave the country because of the unending scandals he used to hear about his mother and he promised never to come back until his own mother is death. Jamilu who is now in the United States can confirm or deny my claim. I know he will read this piece anywhere he is in the world.
Another reason that made Al-Mustapha’s parents to vehemently reject his marriage proposal to Hafsat was that even after giving birth to Jamilu out of wedlock she has not repented in her indecent life and immoral behaviours. While at the Dodon Barracks as a cook, Hafsat was known to be notorious following one military officer or the other and threatening to break their marriages. The likes of General Ibrahim Babangida, General Aliyu Gusau, General Bamaiyi, late Maryam Babangida, Maryam Abacha and the late Sani Abacha can testify to that. It is also on record and in line with her usual antics that she still claims to have been legally wedded to Al-Mustapha after perfecting and performing all marriage rights according to Islam and tradition, even though there is no single evidence to justify that. Hafsat at one time had snatched late Laila Dogon Yaro’s husband and relocated to his house until she was beaten, humiliated and sent packing by Laila and her relatives. Al-Mustapha’s parents were also convinced that she has become notorious in following sorcerers and other Babalawos to spiritually possess her boyfriends and force them into marriage hence the total rejection of their son’s marriage proposal to her.
But unknown to the poor parents of Al-Mustapha, their promising son has already been possessed by Hafsat. Despite their rejection and even threats of cursing him Al-Mustapha insisted that he must marry Hafsat. At one time during the controversy Hafsat literarily kidnapped the young Al-Mustapha, disconnected him from his parents and was feeding him with all concoctions and herbals from sorcerers. When his father realized that the young Al-Mustapha is not in his senses and that he most have been possessed and is determined to go ahead to marry the old Hafsat, he personally visited the current Minister of Defense, General Aliyu Gusau, who is alive to confirm or deny the claim to intervene since he was Al-Mustapha’s senior. His father believed that due to the discipline in the army and the seniority respect, his son must listen to General Gusau. He was obviously concerned about the implication of marrying a character like Hafsat. But to his surprise and which further confirmed the strong spiritual influence Hafsat already had on his son, Al-Mustapha, the young officer rejected General Gusau’s counseling and advice and even preferred to leave the army if that will guarantee his marriage to Hafsat. Al-Mustapha was practically crazy then and willing to separate from even his parents if they did not allow him to marry her.
When Al-Mustapha insisted, his frustrated parents and relatives said they will not be party to the marriage they considered immoral and illegitimate because of the fact that Hafsat already had a bastard child and was staying in his house performing all the duties of a house wife even before the issue of the marriage came up and due to the questionable influence she has on him. As a punishment Al-Mustapha was transferred to Calabar then to Enugu and Lagos. He was only recognized and brought back to late General Abacha when he played a gallant role to foil the Okar coup.
Eventually Hafsat went to her usual shrine in Biu only to come back and claim that the wedding Fatiha between her and Al-Mustapha was conducted. It is on record and contrary to the Islamic provision that Al-Mustapha, his parents, representatives, relatives, brothers including his immediate brother Hadi Al-Mustapha and his friends did not attend the purported wedding in Biu. If there is evidence I challenge Hafsat to show it to the world. The only thing Hafsat manipulated and did after the so called wedding in order to ‘legitimize’ it is using her remote controlled ‘husband’ to apply to the military to organize the crossing of the sword ceremony. Before the crossing of the sword and for her to convince the world that the wedding has been perfected legally, Hafsat directed her helpless and hypnotized ‘husband’ to ensure by all means that his parents attend the ceremony. Al-Mustapha went to his grandfather as directed by Hafsat and cried profusely to intervene and direct his father and relatives to attend the crossing of the sword. The old man reluctantly pacified his son out of sympathy for his grandson and Al-Mustapha’s parent eventually attended the ceremony out of respect for the old man.
But soon afterwards their fears for their son began to manifest. Hafsat was not only growing to be authoritarian and dictatorial but gradually more powerful, relevant and respectful in the eyes of their own son, Al-Mustapha than them. There was a particular time when Al-Mustapha’s late father and mother visited him in Aso Rock when he was the CSO because of ill health but surprisingly and in the presence of Al-Mustapha and other Body Guards (BGs) like Adamcy and Hussaini Monguno all of whom are alive to confirm or dispute this claim, Hafsat humiliated, abused and embarrassed his parents and even sent them parking without allowing them to even finish their mission. The only thing the helpless Al-Mustapha can utter to Hafsat is “Haba you know they are my parents”. He watched his parent’s unceremonious departure from the Aso Rock helplessly and in the presence of his boys, the BGs. In fact Hafsat who ordered Al-Mustapha’s parent to go out of her house nearly stab Adamsy with a knife for the offense of according respect and hospitality to them during their visit.
Islamically Al-Mustapha and Hafsat are leaving together illegally and in a perpetual life of fornication since there has never been a wedding between them and by implication and Islamically too their two innocent children, Al-Mustapha Jnr and Fatima are bastards. It is very painful to write this but it is the bitter truth. That has been part of the concern of Al-Mustapha’s parents before they died; for their child to reconcile with his creator before it is too late for him and for him to be separated from the bondage of the evil Hafsat and for him to have legitimate children. They believe Al-Mustapha’s misfortunes in life and the travails he went through after Gen. Abacha’s death have to do with the evil in Hafsat. While Al-Mustapha is generally regarded as the powerful CSO during the Abacha regime, Hafsat is the actual power and dictating the tune for him. In fact, for Al-Mustapha’s late mother, whom credible insiders accused Hafsat for the sickness and eventual death of, she preferred her son to remain perpetually in prison or to even die there than to be out from prison and under the bondage of Hafsat again because as she has been quoted severally “in as much as Hamza is together with this evil woman his life will continue to be in danger and he will risk the wrath of Allah because if he didn’t obey her she can kill him. She told me to my face that if Hamza for any reason attempted to marry another woman she will kill him and I believe she can”.