A Nigerian court has ordered an investigation into the mysterious disappearance of a former military chief from a prison in Lagos.
| Don't you hate it when that happens? |
Hamza al-Mustapha, head of security for the late dictator Sani Abacha, was allegedly abducted from Kiri-Kiri prison after an exchange of fire. A BBC correspondent in Abuja says the state security service had wanted to question him over military issues. The Nigerian prison service has denied that Mr al-Mustapha was abducted.
| "Nope, he wasn't abducted, he's just been, er, misplaced." |
The former top military official was to appear in court on Wednesday to seek an orders preventing him being transferred to the custody of the state agents. During Abacha's rule Mr al-Mustapha was considered Nigeria's second most powerful official. In 1998, he was charged in 1998 with ordering the murder of Kudirat Abiola, the wife of opposition politician Chief Moshood Abiola. The BBC's Mannir Dan-Ali in Abuja says the former military chief disappeared on Tuesday night from Kiri-Kiri maximum security prison after people suspected to be security agents abducted him after a gun battle at the prison.
| Sniff...sniff..smells like a jail break to me. Sprung him before state investigators could question him. |
Judge Olubunmi Oyewole has ordered prosecutors to locate Hamza Al-Mustapha.
| "Hamza al-Mustapha knows too much. Youse guys know what to do!" |
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