JUNE 12: Aregbesola, Others Call For Free And Fair Elections

Activities marking this year’s June 12 anniversary were held in some states of the federation yesterday with some governors making various requests for free and fair election for the sustenance of democracy in the country.

The day is usually set aside by mostly governors and civil society organisations to remember the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election presumed to have been won by the late Chief MKO Abiola.
In Osun State, Governor Rauf Aregbesola, called Nigerians not to allow people chosen to govern them be subverted by anti-democratic forces.
Aregbesola who spoke at the Nelson Mandela Park in Osogbo, the state capital, said what the country desperately needed is true democracy, which must be nurtured for it to develop, progress and be stable.
The governor said the people had come a long way remembering the callousness of the military to annul the freest and fairest election in the history of the country.
According to him, the annulment of the presidential election dragged the nation into anarchy, which it is yet to extricate itself till date. He cautioned Nigerians to make sure that such ominous event does not repeat itself again.
The governor averred that only those who do not have agenda for the masses revel in backwardness of its people and country.
“What is important for us is that democracy must be nurtured in our society if we are really interested in the progress, security and peace of the nation.
“With the annulment of June 12, presidential election, the nation teetered into a state of anarchy. That annulment set us back politically, economically and spiritually.
“There is an eternal struggle between forces of light and that of darkness. So, there will always be a conflict in the society between those committed to serving the people and those who intend to serve themselves and their pocket.
“Therefore, those who have no agenda for the people are the ones who revel in backwardness,” Aregbesola said.
He added that the essence of the June 12 celebration was to domesticate the consequences of that obnoxious act of the military and guard against its re-occurrence.
The governor disclosed that the good governance which the winner of the June 12 annulled election, Abiola, promised Nigerian is what his (Aregbesola’s) government is offering the people of the state.
Aregbesola called on the federal government to therefore, recognise Abiola as the winner of that presidential election and give him a posthumous rights and privileges attached to him as elected president of the nation.
EXCERPTS FROM THISDAY