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Speaking at the official launch of his autobiography and fundraiser for the IBB Presidential Library in Abuja, Babangida expressed regret over the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election, acknowledging that the candidate of the Social Democratic Party, Moshood Abiola, won the elections.
However, he blamed forces led by former Head of State, General Sani Abacha, for annulling the elections. In the 12th chapter of the book subtitled, ‘ Transition to civil rule and the June 12 Saga, he wrote: ” I remember saying, these nefarious inside forces opposed to the elections have outflanked me”.
” I would later find out that, the forces led by General Sani Abacha annulled the elections” . ” There and then, I knew I was caught between the devil and the deep blue sea” . ” From then on, the June 12 elections took on a painful twist for which, as I will show later, I regrettably took responsibility” .
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While reacting to this development, the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), a human rights organisation, has called for the prosecution of former military ruler, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), for his role in the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election.
The group’ s demands come after Babangida’ s recent public admission of his involvement in the annulment, which the CDHR described as an attempt to hoodwink Nigerians into believing he acted in good faith.
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This was contained in a press statement issue by the organisation through their President, Debo Adeniran, during his exclusive interview with the journalists.
They called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to arrest and prosecute Babangida for working against the democratic principles of the country and cause the death of many people across the country.
Watch Babangida’ s Confessions
While delivering his speech, he said that, the annulment of the 1993 election was a ” coup detat” against the administration of MKO Abiola, who was denied his rightful victory.
He said that, he views Babangida’ s actions as ” brazen sociopolitical and moral assault” on Nigerians, undermining democracy and resulting in widespread human rights abuses.
” The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) received with heavy heart, the recent admission of the infamous June 12 notorious fact by former military ruler, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida” .
His belated public confessions regarding his role in the illegal annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election is an attempt to hoodwink the unwary Nigerians to believe that the mischievous dictator actually meant well by the brazen sociopolitical and moral assault he unleashed on them by the inglorious act.
He called President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to arrest and prosecute Babangida for causing crisis in Nigeria.
” In light of this, we call on the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to immediately order the prosecution of General Babangida for crimes against humanity and for orchestrating a coup detat that subverted the democratic will of the Nigerian people” . ‘ This prosecution should not be difficult since the chief plotter has confessed to these crimes in public and in writing as published in his bloody book that could have been A Journey into Perdition’ mistitled A Journey in Service” .
” The fact that, the result of that election was already in public domain and everybody knew that Abiola won the election before Babangida in his typical deft Maradonic maneuvering of people’ s sensibilities stopped the official announcement of the remaining results, made the annulment as good as committing a coup detat against the administration the people voted for” .
” His actions meet the threshold of crime against humanity, as they resulted in widespread human rights abuses and the repression of pro- democracy activists and ultimately affected huge number of people who were affected by the misrule and misgovernance that followed that inglorious annulment” .
” We would also like to remind President Tinubu that just as he said that, Babangida lost the opportunity to become a hero with the annulment of the June 12 election, he (President Tinubu) should not lose that opportunity of becoming the hero of the June 12 struggle by announcing MKO Abiola as a past Nigerian president with full privileges of the status posthumously granted him and his family” .
He said: ” We would also like the Government of the day to punish the likes of all beneficiaries of the coup detat, especially late Chief Ernest Shonekan and those that served in his kangaroo and illegal cabinet called the Interim National Government” .”
His successor, late Gen. Sanni Abacha, Justice Ikpeme who delivered the midnight verdict to accentuate the journey to perdition, spineless late Humphrey Nwosu who succumbed to illegal instructions to truncate announcement of the election results and all others who benefitted from the annulment of the election one way or the other” .
” We recommend that, the national honours conferred on them should be withdrawn and the benefits being paid to the families of the dead ones among them should also be withdrawn” . ” All the physical belongings that they may have acquired during their illegal stay in office should also be confiscated even when some of them could no longer be prosecuted because they are no longer alive” .
” Furthermore, we urge the Nigerian judiciary, relevant anti- corruption agencies, and international human rights organizations to take decisive action in ensuring that justice is served” . ” The culture of impunity must end, and those responsible for Nigeria’ s democratic setbacks must be held accountable” .
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