While fingers have been pointed at former President, Ibrahim Babangida for the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, former Assistant National Auditor of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Godwin Dabo Adzuana has said that the former military ruler should not be held responsible for the widely condemned act.
Speaking exclusively to Daily Sun at his Makurdi home, Dabo argued that Babangida was not guilty, adding that the decision for the annulment was taken by a cabal of officers in the military at that time, most of whom, he said, were still alive today and wondered why they continued to keep mute on the matter.
Maintaining that the former military president actually wanted to actualize June 12, Chief Dabo stated that Babangida was constrained, because these officers threatened to kill him, if he did so, recalling that on the eve of the annulment those officers told Babangida that if he actualized June 12, they were going to shoot him dead.
“Babangida is not guilty because he was ready to actualize June 12, but these officers did not agree. Some of them including Aikhomu are still alive today.
I am giving them 30 days to come out and tell Nigerians what happened. It is unfair to hold Babangida responsible for the annulment of June 12.”
He argued that the decision to annul the June 12 election won by the late Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola was not the sole responsibility of the president but that of the Supreme Military Council, which put it into vote and the majority moved against the actualization, stressing further that Babangida did not want the annulment, but had to abide by the decision of the majority.
While agreeing that the annulment was a gross mistake, Dabo, however, went philosophical, saying Abiola was not destined to be president, otherwise nothing could have been able to stop him from getting there. He stressed that fundamental mistakes were made and that those responsible should come out publicly to apologise to Nigerians to lay to rest the allegation against Babangida.
“I believe in destiny. Abiola to me was not destined to be president if not, nothing, nobody would have been able to stop him from getting there. He actually won the election. Even when he was to be released, I was in touch with him all through that period and I told him the night before that he should accept whatever jail term he was given so that we could smuggle him out of the country as soon as he was released and he accepted.”
“I was surprised the next morning to hear that he refused to be released because the plan then was that we would smuggle him out of the country so that he could fight for his mandate while abroad but some people deceived him saying he would not be president if he accepted the bail
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