20/2/2025
Former Military President, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), has said the late Basorun Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola won the June 12, 1993 presidential election.
General Babangida’s revelation was contained in his autobiography, “A Journey in Service”, which was launched in Abuja on Thursday.
Through the book reviewer and former Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo, Babangida said that the late MKO Abiola, who contested the presidential election on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), secured the majority of votes and the geographical spread to be the president.
Osinbajo said: “He also answers the question whether Abiola actually won the June 12 election, and I quote him, ‘although I am on record to have stated after the election that Abiola may not have won the election, upon deeper reflection and a closer examination of all available facts, particularly the detailed election results, which are published as an appendix to this book, there was no doubt that MKO Abiola won the June 12 elections.”
The former Vice-President quoted IBB to have said, given another chance, he would handle events of the June 12 election differently.
In his book, Babangida was quoted to have said he was happy that ex-President Muhammadu Buhari acknowledged Abiola and honoured him with the greatest national title of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR).
Abiola, candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the election adjudged as Nigeria’s freest, was up against Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention (NRC).
The results of the election were trickling in when the military regime ordered the then National Electoral Commission (NEC) under the leadership of late Professor Humphrey Nwosu to halt the exercise.
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