Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, popularly known simply as Kudirat Abiola, was a Nigerian pro-democracy campaigner a business woman and wife of Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola.
She was assassinated whilst her husband, Moshood Abiola, was being detained by the Nigeria Government.
She was born 1951 in Zaria and Assasinated in 1996
She started her early education. at Muslim Girls High School, Ijebu Ode,
Alhaja Kudirat Abiola was the second and senior wife of her husband.
She had seven children for are husband and they are Yusau Olalekan, Hafsat Olaronke,Abdul Mumuni Khafila,Hadi, Moriam,Jamiu Abiodunand Olalekan Yusau Abiola.
Kudirat adopted many social causes, and was to become a prime supporter of the educational programs of the Ansar-Ud-Deen Muslim movement in Nigeria.
Kudirat was a successful businesswoman, she owns a pharmaceutical company, amongst many other businesses,
Alhaja Kudirat Abiola became an activist when the government of Nigeria shattered her life. Her husband, Chief Moshood Abiola, is widely believed to have won the annulled June 1993 presidential election and has been detained on a treason charge since June. 1994. From the time of his arrest, Alhaja Kudirat Abiola courageously called for her husband’s release despite constant and vindictive harassment of her family and supporters by the government.
On a Tuesday, 4th of June, 1996, around 3:05 pm one of the most senseless murders in Nigeria was carried out. A sparkling white Mercedes Benz V-Boot was cruising along the streets of Lagos. As the car slowed down around 7-Up Depot/Bus Stop in Ikeja, they were attacked by six men who suddenly opened fire on the German machine Kudirat Abiola fell to bullets from a P 90 riffle, allegedly on the orders of the state. That death brought a beautiful, brilliant and bold life, which Kudirat was generally believed to have lived to an untimely end.
In October 1998 Major Hamza Al-Mustapha appeared in court with the previous President Abacha’s son Mohammed, charged with the murder of Kudirat Abiola. At the trial the self-confessed killer, Sergeant Barnabas Jabila, said he was obeying orders from his superior, al-Mustapha.
On 30 June 2012 Hamza Al-Mustapha and Alhaji Lateef Shofolahan were sentenced to be hanged for the murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola. Al Mustapha had been a Presidential Chief security officer whilst Shofolahan had been his victim’s personal assistant. The two were later released on appeal by a court in Lagos. Abiola remains a symbol of Nigeria’s struggle for democracy
