President of the Nigerian Senate, General David Mark, who was negatively associated with the annulment of the June 12 1993 election, has risen strongly in his own defence, firing back at the former Chairman of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), Prof. Humprey Nwosu, by saying Nwosu is full of lies.The Senate President said: “If he(Nwosu) knew that Chief MKO Abiola won the election, why didn’t he announce the results, and as the umpire, he should have announced the winner or resigned and stop passing the buck.”
He also accused Nwosu of passing the buck over an issue that directly rested on him. He said that the former NEC boss should have resigned his job if he knew that anything untowards was being done.
Mark, who spoke through his Special Adviser, Media and Communications, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, said that the claim by Nwosu amounted to passing the buck.
“We can’t simply judge a book by its cover, we have not read the book, but when we read it, we will give it the detailed response. If it requires a press statement, we will do that. If it requires a press conference, we will do that and if it requires writing a book to correct the misrepresentations, we will do that, but in the meantime, we will say that he is simply passing the buck, because he had a constitutional role to play,” Mark said.
He asked the former NEC boss to stop passing the buck on the issue of June 12 elections, adding that all he said on Thursday were afterthoughts. “All what he said are an afterthought.
Professor Humphrey Nwosu, had exonerated Babangida of wrong doing in the annulment of the election as he hinted that a cabal within his government masterminded the electoral crime.
Indeed, Nwosu in the 387-page book he wrote on the June 12 presidential election implied that it was General Sani Abacha aided by other military brass that prevailed on the government of General Babangida to annul the elections.
Meanwhile, Admiral Nyako through his Chief Press Secretary, Alhaji Maijama’a Adamu, yesterday denied the existence of committee which was set up under the NSDC and headed by Abacha to decide on what to do with the results of the June 12 election.
Nyako, he declared “in unequivocal terms made it clear that throughout their tenure in the NSDC, there was never a time any committee whatsoever was set up under the chairmanship of General Abacha of which he (Nyako) was a member; talk less of a committee that decided on the fate of the results of the June 12 election.”
Nyako acknowledged that the issue of June 12 had been discussed at the level of the NSDC of which the members were not at anytime unanimous in support of annulment.
He disclosed: “We always had divergent views about June 12. Even at the level of the NSDC, but my position even then was that democracy remains the best option of governance for a pluralistic society like Nigeria.”
The Adamawa governor maintained that this is a view he held even during his post-military era.
His CPS added that in as much as the NSDC of which Admiral Nyako was a member, took the unfortunate decision of annulling June 12, the minority opinion of the council to which Nyako aligned himself, was that democracy should be given a chance.
Also yesterday, Lagos lawyer and human rights activist, Femi Falana, described Nwosu’s June 12 account as “irresponsible and smacks of intellectual dishonesty.”
Falana who spoke to THISDAY, said: “I think it is a good development that he (Nwosu) has finally opened up. But he discredited his presentation by attempting rather woefully to distort some of the obvious facts.
“In particular, he has given a very false impression that General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd.) was not a party to the annulment. That account is irresponsible and smacks of intellectual dishonesty on the grounds that the annulment decree was signed by General Babangida.
“If Babangida had wanted the results of the election announced, he would have done so as the Commander-in-Chief of the Army Forces at the material time. But having decided to prolong his stay in power, he gave the impression to the Humphrey Nwosus of this world that his hands were tied like Pontius Pilate.”
On the belated declaration of late Chief MKO Abiola as the winner of the election, Falana said: “Frankly speaking, there was nothing new in the presentation made on Thursday. In fact, at a material time, the Campaign for Democracy (CD) published the June 12 results.
“Secondly the dubious roles played by late Generals Abacha, Dogonyaro and David Mark were well documented by The News, The Tempo and Tell magazines.
“Nwosu has not really added any value to the issue of June 12. The most dangerous thing he has done is to attempt to pull wool over the eyes of Nigerians by exonerating the man who has always taken responsibility for annulling the election.”
The National Chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Chief Edwin Ume-Ezeoke equally faulted the timing of the release of the book written by Nwosu.
According to Ume-Ezeoke, “My worries are all about the timing of the book. Why must he wait for 15 years to release his account of the election he conducted?
“Why must he wait when the major actors mentioned in his book are dead? I am an African, it is our culture not to speak ill of the dead. Say what ever, you have when they are alive.”
In the book, titled: ‘Laying the Foundation for Nigeria’s Democracy: My Account of June 12, 1993 Presidential Election and its Annulment,’ Nwosu claimed that: “The other person, who before, during and after the election gave us support and wanted the outcome of the election to be concluded in keeping with the provisions of the law was the Vice-President, Admiral Augustus Aikhomu.
