An Islamic human rights organization, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), has rejected attempts by former dictator, General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd), to exonerate himself from the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election fiasco.
This was disclosed in a press release issued on Sunday, February 23, 2025 by the group’s Executive Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola.
In his memoir, A Journey In Service, launched at the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja on Thursday, February 20, 2025, Babangida blamed the late dictator General Sani Abacha for the annulment of the 1993 presidential election and accused him of plotting to overthrow his government violently.
In the 420-page book, Babangida delves into the controversies surrounding the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election, which was won by the late MKO Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). He described the annulment as an “accident of history” and expressed deep regret over the incident.
Babangida, who was the military president at the time of the election, revealed that he was in Katsina when his second-in-command’s press secretary announced the annulment without his knowledge or authorisation.
According to Babangida, he later discovered that Abacha, then his chief of defence staff who subsequently became the military head of state, led the opposition against the June 12 election.
The former leader explained that after consulting with various groups, he reached out to Abiola and offered him an interim leadership role. However, following the nationwide protests that erupted over the annulment, Babangida stepped down as president in August 1993, paving the way for an interim government headed by Ernest Shonekan.
Abacha later overthrew Shonekan’s administration in November 1993.
Subsequently, Abacha detained Abiola after he declared himself the rightful president.
The statement reads: “We of the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) hereby totally reject all attempts by the former military dictator to exonerate himself from the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election fiasco. The former dictator should stop blaming others for all that happened. We assert emphatically, unequivocally and categorically that the buck stops at IBB’s table. We reject his alibi.
“We hold IBB responsible for the failure of Nigeria to cultivate a sustainable, visionary and dignifying political culture having annulled the fairest, freest and most peaceful election in the history of Nigeria.
“Thursday, 20th February, 2025, the day IBB presented his memoir, was a sad day for genuinely patriotic Nigerians. It was the day leaders decided to disappoint the masses by hero-worshipping a former dictator, a tyrant and a numero uno enemy of democracy.
“Nigeria was at the edge of the cliff when the duo of Buhari and Idiagbon came to rescue the nation from general indiscipline, corruption and avaricious greed. We were getting it right when IBB came from nowhere to topple that corrective administration. That was the beginning of our descent back to the abyss of pitch darkness.
“IBB incarcerated Buhari and refused to allow him to attend his mother’s funeral. The lives of many innocent Nigerians were wasted during the IBB-Abacha totalitarian military misadventure. Clement Akpangbo, Bagauda Kaltho, Justice Ikpeme, Alfred Rewane, etc. were sent to the beyond. The streets of Lagos and Ibadan were filled with dead bodies.
“Yet the height of heartlessness and callousness was the assassination of the winner of that monumental election, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola (MKO) and the killing of his wife, Alhaja Kudirat Abiola.”
MURIC condemned the “public show of spite, chagrin and insensitivity at the Transcorp Hilton, venue of IBB’s book presentation”.
It described it as not only “audacious” but also “outrageous, nauseating and provocative”.
It said, “Salt was added to injury. IBB is not sober.
“Our leaders have failed to learn the art of healing. They do not understand the people they are leading. We are separated by a wide gulf. Arrogance and impunity are cancerous tumors which eat deep into the anatomy of love, unity, tolerance and forgiveness.
“This country has not been fully healed from the excruciating pains of June 12 and the criminal and cold-blooded killings of our first prime minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto and Chief S. L. Akintola former premier of the Western Region. Unfortunately, all those killings were done by the Nigerian military.
“For the temerity manifested by IBB in displaying the original results of the June 12 election 32 years later and for publicly admitting that MKO won the historic election, the author of ‘A Journey In Service’ has certified Nigeria as the land where conscienceless power subjugates powerless conscience.
“This book is the height of impunity and the author is judicable. IBB has not demonstrated remorse. His book is indubitable exercise in the territory of high-level treason.
“As an Islamic human rights organization, MURIC is greatly disturbed by the fact that the major dramatis personae in the annulment of the June 12 election are Muslims: MKO, IBB, Abacha, etc. We regret that the principle of justice which Islam holds in high esteem have been bastardised by those who should know better.
“We give posthumous salutes to true heroes of democracy like Chief MKO Abiola, Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, Dr. Beko Ransome Kuti and Chief Alfred Rewane. We doff our hats to living heroes of the struggle like Professor Wole Soyinka, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, current governor of Kaduna State, Uba Sani, Professor Sylvester Odion Akhaine, erstwhile secretary of the Campaign for Democracy (CD), the arrowhead of the struggle against military rule, Shehu Sani, Comrade Okechukwu Ndiribe and leaders of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO).”
