LAGOS State Government under the leadership of Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has justified the reasons for appealing at the Supreme Court the judgment which discharged and acquitted Major Hamza Al Mustapha.
Fashola explained during the commemoration of his 2,300 days in office which held in Ikeja that the state places highest premium on human lives.
He added that the government acted based on the popular agitation of the people.
“The first report is in respect of the verdict of acquittal of Major Al Mustapha for charges of conspiracy and murder by the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal, which has generated some mixed reactions.
“Because our Constitution permits a further appeal to the Supreme Court, and because we place the highest premium on every human life and because the families of the victims deserve every right to agitate the matter to the final court, just as the accused would have been entitled, your government has appealed on behalf of the people to the Supreme Court.”
“No nation that wants to prosper and solve human challenges should ever be tardy or play politics with data collection projects such as population census. You cannot manage what you cannot measure,” he said.
He also said that these findings led to the conclusions that the census returns were manipulated against the state in an act of grave injustice to say the least.
Fashola, however disclosed that the government filed 20 different petitions in the Census Tribunal to challenge the figures in the 20 local governments, and out of which 14 petitions were successful where the tribunal made various findings that included the orders for recounts.
It would be recalled that Al Mustapha was discharge and acquitted by the Appeal Court in Lagos based on the “gapping hole” noted in the prosecution’s case.
This is after a very long-standing trial which observers have said has no match n the legal annals of the country.