Labour Urges Buhari To End June 12 Controversy

LABOUR leaders have demanded President Muhammadu Buhari to posthumously honour the acclaimed winner of June 12, 1993 presidential elections, the late Moshood Abiola and put to rest the controversy surrounding the annulment of the poll by the former military leader, retired General Ibrahim Babangida.

According to the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), whose members marked June 12 in Kaduna yesterday, “President Muhammadu Buhari should offer leadership and build a groundswell of national consensus to posthumously accord acceptable deserved national and global honour to the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief Moshood Abiola and hundreds of other victims of that era of impunity.”

In a statement issued by the Deputy President of NLC, Comrade Issa Aremu, he said “22 years after, June 12 spectre repeatedly hunts Nigeria’s democratic process.”

Aremu said, “Given the free and fair election that led to his emergence in March this year, President Muhammadu Buhari is the best positioned Nigerian leader in recent times to rightly name, shame and damn the criminal annulment of the 1993 presidential election results adjudged to be the most free and fair.”

Aremu further stated: “The point cannot be overstated; the distortion of Nigeria’s democratic aspiration started with the singular annulment of 1993 June 12 free and fair elections,” adding, let’s close the chapter of June 12 by dignifying its victims as a matter of legitimate right, not favour.”

He commended the outgoing INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega for standing firm and truly independent in upholding the mandate of Nigerians during the 2015 presidential elections, and by doing so raising high the banner of Africa as democracy destination.