Abdul Abiola, a son of the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief Moshood Abiola, has threatened to reveal what he calls the “truth” of what happened in the post election period which led to the death of his parents, Moshood and Kudirat Abiola.
It is unclear what the tweet meant by “Truth.”
He stated this in a short post on his twitter handle on Tuesday.
The June 12 1993 election is widely regarded as Nigeria’s fairest election with Moshood Abiola in the lead to become president before it was annulled by former military president, Ibrahim Babangida.
The annulled presidential election had two Muslim candidates – Bashir Tofa (National Republican Convention) from the North and Abiola (of the Social Democratic Party) from the South.
Following the annulment of the polls, Abiola declared himself president and was subsequently arrested and detained, leading to his eventual death in custody in 1998.
According to the tweet by Abdul, “It’s time for the Nigerian people to know the TRUTH as to what happened in the post-June 12, 1993 Election, and what lead to the death of MKO Abiola and Kudirat Abiola, and other unsung heroes.”
He called on president Muhammadu Buhari to “I urge Mr. President to look into our security archives for justice to prevail!”
Recall that in June 2018 Buhari had on conferred Abiola with the nation’s highest honour, the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) – an honour exclusively conferred only on presidents and former presidents.
While Abiola was given a posthumous GCFR award, his runningmate, Babagana Kingibe, was awarded the Grand Commander of the Order of Niger (GCON).
He also declared June 12 as the new democracy day instead of May 29th, as a sign of honour to Abiola.
The national stadium in Abuja was also named after him as a sign of honour to him.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan had in May 2012 in his broadcast to mark the May 29 Democracy Day and one year of his administration, announced that the federal government would change the institution’s name from University of Lagos to Moshood Abiola University.
