Fourteen years after the death of Chief Moshood Kasimowo Olawale Abiola, pro-democracy groups have called for the prosecution of former President Ibrahim Babangida and immortalisation of Abiola.
The calls were made at rallies which took place in some states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja and attended by human right activists, including Professor Wole Soyinka, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) President, Olisa Agbakoba (SAN); Lagos State governnor, Mr. Babatunde Fasola; General Alani Akinrinade, Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi, Mr. Ayo Opadokun, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, Mr. Femi Falana, Mr. Odia Ofeimun, Senator Olabiyi Durojaye, Mr. Kunle Ajibade, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, Dr.Femi Aborisade, Moshood Erubami, among others.
In Lagos, the Nobel laureate, Professor Soyinka, who was a guest lecturer at the occasion held at the MUSON Centre, Onikan, said there was need to distinguish between mental attitude and political gratitude.
He explained that what the country was experiencing currently was the societal monster that “diminishes us as a nation and the sense of self -worth and dignity is eroded.”
In the view of the NBA President, Agbakoba, there was the need to ensure free and fair election which was what June 12 stood for.
Lagos State governor, Mr Fashola, said June 12 meant many things to many people and the victims of the struggle reminded him of the enormity.
The groups said IBB and his accomplices in the annulment of the June 12 election should be brought to book by President Umaru Yar’Adua’s administration, just as they called for the immortalisation of Chief Abiola.
Speaking in Abuja yesterday at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, the groups, led by the Second Republic governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, said the memory of the June 12 presidential election would continue to linger in the minds of Nigerians since it represented a political watershed in the country’s democratisation process.
Also in Osogbo, Osun State, human right activists held a peaceful rally and lecture in commemoration of the death of the politician.
The lecture, entitled, Development, Election and Future of Democracy in Nigeria, was organised by the Committee for Democracy and Right of the People (CDRP) and held at the Olu Osungbohun Hall of the Osun State council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
