Three decades after the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Ibrahim Babangida, the retired army general and former military president, has finally told his side of the story.
In his revealing memoir, ‘A Journey in Service’, launched in Abuja on Thursday and seen by TheCable, Babangida said he was in Katsina when the annulment of the election, won by MKO Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), was announced by the press secretary of his second-in-command without his knowledge or permission.
He said he later discovered that the forces against the June 12 election were led by Sani Abacha, his chief of defence staff who later became military head of state.
In the wake of the crisis, Babangida had stepped down as president in August 1993 and installed an interim government, led by Ernest Shonekan, which Abacha would remove from power in November 1993.
In the wake of the crisis, Babangida had stepped down as president in August 1993 and installed an interim government, led by Ernest Shonekan, which Abacha would remove from power in November 1993.
The journey to the June 12 annulment began two days before D-Day when a judge granted an injunction stopping the electoral commission from going ahead with the election.
A group known as the Association to Better Nigeria (ABN), led by Arthur Nzeribe, had filed the lawsuit.
Babangida admitted in the memoir, published by Bookcraft Ltd., that Nzeribe was close to him, but denied supporting the activities of ABN.
“From out of nowhere, on June 10, two days before the presidential election, the same shadowy group, ABN, which had been campaigning for an extension of military rule, approached the Abuja High Court of Justice Bassey Ikpeme for an injunction to stop NEC (National Electoral Commission) from conducting the elections,” he said in his memoir.
Leave a Reply