Is this justice denied?

By Christian Chinedu

Dear editor, judges are very important personalities in society. They are highly revered because of their wealth of knowledge and the power they weild in the judiciary, and the society in general. Am not a lawyer but i appreciate the fact that all judges are first and foremost, lawyers.

Two very significant court judgement broke on the 13th of July. The one was from far away America, the famed land of milk and honey, Gods own country! And the other, in our own Nigeria, the famed giant of africa. Sometime in 2012, the news on the murder of certain trayvon martin, a 17yrs old African American boy by a self appointed Hispanic neighbourhood watchman named George zimmerman hit the world. The boy was allegedly unarmed and had committed no crime at the scene of his murder. Curiously, the police originaly didn't find any reason to charge the alleged murderer. Protests broke out and eventually an appointed prosecutor charged zimmerman to court. One thing was instructive from the onset. There seemed to be a conspiration by some persons to shield zimmerman from prosecution. There where certain facts established during the case, it includes the very important fact that the kid was unarmed. He also had not committed any crime there. More, he clearly was 12yrs younger than his assailant. Before judgment was pronounced, there was palpable anxiety and tension from most black communities and persons in the united states. . Most prominent Americans including the president of the country barracks obama, commented on the murder case. He was quoted to have said, "if i had a son, he will look like trayvon Martin" Eventually, the jury of six women five of whom are white gave judgement in favour of zimmerman. In his charge, the verdict could have come out in three the ways. First , guilty of second degree murder, second, guilty of manslaughter and third, not guilty. He was declared not guilty. The judgement has since provoked outrage across the world with reaction cutting across races and inclinations. Never in my 40yrs sojourn on earth have i seen so much uniform condemnation of a judgement by a court of competent jurisdiction especially coming from united state of America. Something about the killing is just not right. Zimmerman allegedly called the police to say that a suspicious black looking boy in a hoodie was walking leisurely through under the rain at about 7pm at night and looking at the gated neighbourhood homes. Was it criminal to wear a hood or to walk under the rain? Zimmerman made to pursue the boy while still on the line with the police but was cautioned by the police who told him it wasn his duty to pursue Martin. Curiously, not quite 20minutes after zimmerman made a call to police, the police arrived to find Martin lifeless body at zimmerman's feet. Why didn't he wait for the police? In their judgement the jury said zimmerman's life was in danger and he thus acted in self defence. Ironically , while zimmerman was on to the police, trayvon martin was on to his friend who became a witness in the trial. The jury said her evidence was not good. Same day, 13th July i went online to our local media and was hit by the news of the acquittal and discharge of our own almighty major al mustaphar, the former cso to general sanni abacha nigerias former maximum ruler. Al mustaphar had been in incarceration for the murder of alhaja kudirat abiola the former wife of chief mko abiola the acclaimed winner of June 12 presidential elections in Nigeria. Abiola also died in prison. Al was alleged to have ordered the killing of kudirat as she became very stubborn and uncompromising over the issue of June 12. Al mustaphar is one army officer a lot of nigerians would love to hate. True or false he was believed to be the initiator and executor of various atrocious activities during the abacha era. He was not human as many believed. It seemed he had supernatural powers with which he manipulated even the all powerful abacha his boss. For even senior officers in the army, the fear of abacha was the beginning of wisdom. His word was law. Am sure not many nigerian, not even the most recordkeeping journalist will remember the name of abacha''s adc. In hierarchy, i know the adc is superior to the cso. But al mustahar was the man. He brought power and authority to bear on his position as cso. Al was both in office and in power. In protocol he was nowhere, but in the real business of control and power play it was abacha first, al mustachar second. In some of his statements during his incarceration he said that he was in charge of the security team that guarded abiola while he was in prison. His men tasted all abiola's edible's before abiola eat them. However, the day he was reassigned and his men removed was the day abiola died after taken a cup of tea. I question how he could claim innocence for the murder of kudirat abiola, when he was fully in charge of dispatching orders at the

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