OSOGBO — The ruling Action Congress of Nigeria in Osun State and the main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, have engaged themselves in war of words over the celebration of June 12, 1993 presidential election believed to have been won by Bashorun Mashood Abiola.
The ACN, yesterday, in Osogbo, said any attempt by politicians or individuals to discountenance the strategic importance of June 12, 1993 poll to the nation’s fledgling democracy would be an exercise in futility because that election gave birth to the current democracy in Nigeria.
“Without June 12, 1993 presidential election, won by late Chief MKO Abiola but annulled by the then military government, the so-called May 29, 1999 would have been impossible.
“And anyone who thinks June 12 is dead is himself brain dead. This is what the adversaries of June 12 should be told in clear terms,” the ACN said.
But the PDP, in a statement by its chairman, Alhaji Ganiyu Olaoluwa advised Governor Rauf Aregbesola not to bring the name of the acclaimed winner of June 12 presidential election into the controversy, by naming the Ido Osun Airport after the late business mogul.
The PDP chairman said it is absurd to try and bring Chief MKO Abiola to ridicule because he is one of those who laid their lives to ensure that Nigeria enjoys democracy.
The ACN Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy, Mr. Kunle Oyatomi, a lawyer, had in a statement, said that what happened about the June 12, 1993 election was that the attempt to destroy it failed, and a determined struggle to actualise its democratic credentials manifested in the installation of an elected government on May 29, 1999.
ACN claimed that June 12, 1993 election was a pan – Nigerian victory over military dictatorship, adding that attempt to demonise the event, orchestrated by those who benefited from its annulment could not stop the import of that election which essentially was the triumph of democracy.
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