Senator wants FG to declare MKO Abiola the official winner of June 12 presidential election

chika ebuzor

June 10, 2018 10:03 PM

Melaye also said the government should instruct the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to release the results of the 1993 presidential elections.

Senator Dino Melaye has called on the Federal Government to declare MKO Abiola the official winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential elections.

Abiola was the presumed winner in the election that was globally seen as free and fair.

President Buhari, on June 6, 2018, declared that Democracy Day will be commemorated on June 12 in honour of Abiola.

According to Tribune, Melaye said the government should show sincerity by also asking the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to release the results of the 1993 presidential elections.

Melaye said “For the avoidance of doubt, my views and belief on the sanctity of June 12 and the place of the late Chief MKO Abiola in Nigeria’s democratic history, have not changed and will not. Hence, in my view, the decision by the Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari to honour the late business mogul is deserving and long overdue save for attendant legal issues raised.

“Let me also make it abundantly clear that while both Chief Abiola and the late legal luminary, Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN) deserved more than the GCFR and GCON Honours respectively to be bestowed on them posthumously next Tuesday, it is however important that the right thing is been done in their memory and therefore should not have any blemish in the guise of the current debate for legality or otherwise of the historic Honours as we are witnessing now.

“I urge the Federal Government to do the needful and display sincerity of purpose by officially recognising Chief Abiola as President-elect and cause the official results of the June 12, 1993, presidential election to be released by INEC since President Buhari himself had admitted in the Presidential Order designating June 12 as Democracy Day, the freest and most credible election. By so doing, the GCFR title will, therefore, have a meaning.

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“If the right thing is done now by the Federal Government by proposing amendments to the National Honours Act 1964 to accommodate the current developments, no government in future will reverse the decision. This is my stand as a lawmaker.”

Also, late Chief MKO Abiola’s contender in the 1993 presidential election, Alhaji Bashir Tofa has called on the President to reconsider his declaration of June 12 as the nation’s Democracy Day.

Tofa said Buhari’s declaration should not be used to score a political points.

He was the presidential candidate of the National Republican Convention (NRC), and he came second in the June 12, 1993 elections.

chika ebuzor