7th December, 2018
A front line pro-democracy and civil society group at the forefront of the struggle to revalidate the treasonable annulled June 12, 1993 Presidential election mandate won by late Chief MKO Abiola, has described the approval of June 12 as Democracy Day by the House of Representatives as victory for the Nigerian people.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Friday and jointly signed by the Acting Chairman, Linus Okoroji and the General Secretary, Nelson Ekujumi, the group commended the House of Representatives for doing the needful in officially approving June 12 as democracy day in tandem with the declaration of the day as Democracy Day by President Muhammadu Buhari in June this year.
The group went down memory lane to recount how Nigerians endured the shenanigan of a fraudulent and most expensive transition programme in human history by the Ibrahim Babangida military junta and peacefully went to the polls to vote for a Pan Nigeria President in a manner which jettisoned ethnic, religious and primordial sentiments, but which was treasonably annulled, even though widely acknowledged as the freest and fairest election in Nigeria’s political history.
The group recounted the loss of lives, dislocation and destruction of properties of Nigerians by the military despot just to cow the Nigerian people to accept the annulment but failed and resulted in resolute agitations which sustained the struggle from 1993 and terminated military rule in 1999.
It acknowledged the lives lost, including that of the winner, Chief MKO Abiola in detention under late military despot Get. Sani Abacha, his wife Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, Pa Alfred Rewane, amongst several other matrys.
June 12 Coalition took a swipe at successive civilian administrations since 1999 till 2015 who refused to honour the struggle and sacrifices of the Nigerian people by recognizing June 12 as Nigeria’s Democracy Day, but chose rather to align with agents of darkness and despotism by recognizing May 29th as democracy day instead of the handing over date that it was.
The group congratulated President Muhammadu Buhari for the pro-people action of acceding to the cries of the Nigerian people for June 12 as Democracy Day which was largely ignored by his predecessors and expressed the Nigerian people eternal gratitude to him, for writing his name in gold as a listening and sensitive leader, servant of the people and a democrat per excellence.