News

June 12 Annulment: Shocking Revelations!

Published

2 years ago

June 12, 2023

Editor

Conspiracy they wrote! National security chiefs, politicians and officials of the Ministry of Justice as well as key officials of the Ibrahim Babangida administration were involved.

General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida was President and Commander-in-Chief under whose watch this act against Nigerians was committed. The foundation for the annulment of the June 12 presidential election of 1993 was laid less than 36 hours earlier. But the building blocks were assembled over several months by one Association for Better Nigeria, ABN, led by the late Francis Arthur Nzeribe and one Abimbola Davis.

Ikpeme chose that hour to launch her voyage into infamy. Though it was an interlocutory application, filed by the ABN, Ikpeme, apparently over-mobilised and over-induced, made a “final” pronouncement. And this was in flagrant disregard of the provisions of Section 19(1) of Decree 13 of 1993.

In a 2018 report published in Vanguard and written by Richard Akinola, a veteran law and human rights reporter, “the Plaintiff in the case, Davis, on behalf of the ABN, had alleged electoral corruption on the part of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, candidate, Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola, (Abiola was contesting against Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention, NRC) at the SDP primaries in Jos, between March 27 and 29, 1993. Before her ruling ex-parte at 9:35 that night, there were flurries of activities between Justice Ikpeme’s court chambers and the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation occupied by Clement Akpamgbo, leading to the postponement of the ruling from morning to night. In the ruling, Justice Ikpeme not only stopped the election but also got carried away by the interests she wanted to serve by making a “final” pronouncement on the case even at an Interlocutory level. The allegations ABN levelled against some of the state governments at the primaries, Justice Ikpeme held, were “the greatest shame in the history of Nigeria’s politics”! For a judge to make this outlandish statement at the ex-parte stage of the case when the other party, the National Electoral Commission, NEC, had not been heard, exposed the judicial conspiracy in the whole saga. Confusion cradled the nation in its hands. The NEC promptly issued a statement, disregarding the court order, stating that the election would go on as scheduled. Meanwhile, NEC filed a counter-affidavit that the jurisdiction of the court had been ousted by Section 19(1) of Decree 13 of 1993″.

Now, some otherwise confidential happenings which signposted what was to happen that June 10, 1993 night have come to public place.

According to one of the senior officials of NEC, the commission’s leadership had paid a visit to Aso Rock presidential Villa earlier that fateful day to brief the government on its preparedness to hold the election.

Upon arriving at the Villa, according to the very senior NEC official, “a member of the National Defense Security Council, NDSC, the nation’s highest ruling body at that time, asked us what we came to do at the Villa and we told him we were there to brief government about our preparations. He simply asked, ‘Oh is there going to be an election’?.’ It was not until 9:35 that night that the accidental event of the morning resonated in the consciousness of NEC officials.”

The ABN was suspected to have the backing of a section of the NDSC. Indeed, it had. And had Bashorun Abiola paid more than passing attention to the activities of ABN, perhaps, Davis may not have appeared in court that Thursday morning.

One of Abiola’s associates disclosed to Vanguard that Davis was in touch with them and that he kept them abreast of the plans of the ABN and how Abiola could checkmate them. While some merely suspected that the government of the day was behind ABN, a few insiders were aware of Nzeribe’s visits to Aso Rock where he got briefings. But many saw the plot as being too odoriferous to be effectuated – until the late-night court order.

And although the late Augustus Aikhomu, who was then Vice President, did issue statements that the transition programme did not have a hidden agenda and that the government was going to keep its promise to hold elections and handover in 1993, the events of June 10, 1993, began to cast doubts over its sincerity.

Section 19(1) of Decree 13 of 1993, an addition to the Transition To Civil Rule Decree of 1987/’88, specifically ousted the intervention of the courts in the affairs of NEC. But that did not matter to the cabal of that era which included but was not limited to the Attorney General of the Federation Minister of Justice and a national security chief along with a handful of greedy politicians who used the instrumentality of the ABN to disrupt the process. For, if the government of the day was not involved, why would an association be threatening the major government programme which was meant to lead to a handover to a civilian administration? Yet, there was never a rebuke from any government official against ABN – not even a whimper against what ABN was doing.

A learned legal luminary drew attention to the fact that in 1993 alone, over 103 decrees were promulgated to regulate elections. Now, that a government which went to great lengths to guide its transition programme with that much legislation would allow a subversive body to ambush it speaks to the evil that resides in the heart of men and women.

Saturday, June 12, 1993

But the elections were held on Saturday, June 12, 1993. Against all expectations by the schemers, there was no rain, there were no reports of violence or election rigging – and if there were, they were so inconsequential to warrant reportage because Nigerians were willing to put up with just about anything to ensure the exit of the military.

Interim results on Sunday, June 14, 1993, showed Abiola leading with an overwhelming majority in 19 states while NRC had a clear majority in 11 states.

Wednesday, June 16, 1993, NEC declared that it had decided not to release the final results of the presidential election ‘until further notice,’ as the ABN had once again taken NEC to court, and as another Abuja High Court injunction had been served to restrain the NEC from announcing the results.

Thursday, June 17, 1993, following popular demands for the results, two court orders reversed the Commission’s decision not to publish the election results and a Lagos High Court judge, Justice Moshood Olugbani, ordered NEC to release the results within 24 hours. Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti, the chairman of Campaign for Democracy, CD, issued an ultimatum to NEC to release the results within 24 hours or the CD would do so.

Friday, June 18, 1993, CD released the election results and declared Moshood Abiola the winner of the election. On the same day, Moshood Abiola reportedly “went on television to claim victory”.

Wednesday, June 23, 1993

The results were mounted on a scoreboard outside the commission’s building but within its compound so that people who were just passing by on the street would be updated with the latest results as and when they were certified to be correct, counted and collated and the agents agreeing and affirming the authenticity of the result.

“Alas, after about eight of the results from the states had been put on the scoreboard, an order came from the election committee that the scoreboard should be brought down and removed. The committee had the NEC chairman, Professor Humphrey Nwosu, the chief returning officer, the resident electoral commissioners of the respective results, national commissioners and the representatives of the two political parties.

“What transpired was that within INEC, there were moles who kept feeding Aso Rock Presidential Villa of developments within the Commission. It was from the Villa that the instruction came that the scoreboard should be removed. But that was just the beginning.”

Events took a frenetic turn. Later that day, however, Justice Dahiru Saleh, Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Abuja, declared the election null and void allegedly because the NEC had ignored a first, late-night injunction of Bassey Ikpeme not to conduct the polls. On the same day, the government made an announcement cancelling the elections and suspending NEC.

The final straw that suggested that the government of the day had chosen to break the back of Nwosu and NEC, as well as gave the game away was that the warrant and judgment by Saleh was served on NEC by the then Attorney General, Akpamgbo, so, there was nobody to run to. The Attorney General would have been the one NEC could have approached but here he was, serving NEC with an order. He also told Nwosu that if he disobeyed, he would be on his own.

NEC’s Director of Legal Services, Bukhari Bello, very intelligent and strong-willed, went on appeal. And while he was at the point of getting a judgment, the government announced the suspension of NEC and the transition programme and that meant that the court was no longer in a position to take any decision because it was going to act in vain.

Fittingly, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, one of the staunchest allies of late Bashorun MKO Abiola, is today Nigeria’s 16th president – 30 years after.

VANGUARD

News

[OPINION] 2027: Tinubu And The Snake

Published

15 hours ago

June 13, 2025

Editor

Tunde Odesola

To the Westerner, land is one of the four factors of production, riding in the same vehicle with labour, capital and entrepreneurship. In the terminology of modern economics, land is a variable. A variable is inconsistent, like Nigerian politicians. Land is also a utility, like the Nigerian masses, used and dumped. Land is a means of profit. Prophets profit in Nigeria sinfully. Land is an asset…A broader definition adds technology and human capital to the four basic factors.

In Africa, land holds a spiritual significance beyond its role as a factor of production. Land’s ancient name is Earth. Land is the endless embroidered mat of brown and red soils, lying face-up to her celestial twin, Heaven, who gazes back with sun and moon for eyes.

Unlike Heaven’s big eyes, the sun and the moon, which watch over humans, every step taken by man on land ticks on the conscience of time. Land is ferocious karma. It never forgets. While Heaven symbolises the eyes that watch all human deeds, land is the judge that rewards benevolence and punishes malevolence. This is why the Yoruba revere land in these words, “Ilè ògéré, a fi oko yeri, alapo ika ti o n gbe ika mi, says Ifa scholar and Araba of Osogbo, Chief Ifayemi Elebuibon. Expatiating, Elebuibon states that ogere is a divine trap; a quicksand that caves in under the feet of evildoers, swallowing them up.

After creation, Man and every creature live in their respective habitats within the garden. Biblical and Quranic accounts say God made Man lord over all other creatures, urging him to multiply and subdue the earth. However, Prof. Wande Abimbola, Awise Agbaye, says that foreign religion believers are applying God’s injunction wrongly, noting that African religions, including Ifa worship, provide room for the mutual coexistence of all creatures. He explains that Western civilisation, aided by science and technology, has gravely polluted the earth.

The former vice chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University expounds, “Humans, animals, insects and trees should coexist. If we can’t coexist with nature, we will perish. There are 700 million vehicles worldwide, and there are 350 million of them in the US alone. If you sum up the acreage of roads in the US, it’s more than the size of New Jersey. We have intruded on nature, disrupted ecosystem balance, and killed countless organisms under the soil through construction.

“The injunctions by foreign religions, urging people to go into the world and subdue and multiply, are probably responsible for our wastefulness and population explosion. Where are the trees in Ibadan, Ikeja, Port Harcourt and Zaria? If we see an insect, we kill it. If we see a snake, we kill it.”

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Pounding Yams On Stubborn Bald Heads

But, how did the snake get its venom? Wait, I’ll tell you. Creation stories snake through cultures, shedding skins of meaning from culture to culture. In the Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – the snake got its venom on Creation Day, before sneaking up on Man Adam and Woman Eve, to trick them out of Eden. Thereafter, the snake became cursed and haunted.

In African cosmology, however, the snake is not the Devil. Neither is it Satan who morphed into a serpent in Eden. The snake is not exiled from Paradise; it is a bona fide creature in creation, possessing the most beautiful skin of all, a shapely head and bespectacled eyes.

How did the snake get its venom? Elebuibon uncoils the tale, “In time past, the snake was called ‘okun ile’ – earthly rope, because it was used for tying objects like firewood. People carrying firewood from the bush dump their firewood on the ground at home, smashing the snake, crushing its spine,” Elebuibon explains.

“Then the snake consulted a babalawo named ‘Òkàn Wéré Wéré’, who divinated an Ifa verse, Òkànràn Òsá, for him. Snake was told to make a sacrifice of needles and worship his head. When Snake did as instructed, he became envenomed,” Elebuibon concludes. Man knows better now.

The life of the snake is not only a pot of venom and fangs. Globally, the snake kills far fewer people than the mosquito and war. According to BBC Wildlife Magazine, the snake ranks among the 10 deadliest animals to humans, including the hippopotamus, elephant, saltwater crocodile, ascaris roundworm, scorpion, assassin bug, freshwater snail, Man, and mosquito.

Indeed, Man should be grateful to the snake because it preys to protect balance in the ecosystem. Though its venom kills a very few, it saves millions who suffer from cancer, hypertension, blood disorders, etc via the medicines made from it. A paper titled, “Therapeutic potential of snake venom in cancer therapy: Current Perspectives,” published by the National Library of Science, USA, says, “Some substances found in the snake venom present a great potential as anti-tumour agents. In this review, we presented the main results of recent years of research involving the active compounds of snake venom that have anticancer activity.” The snake is not all about coiling and slithering, though scientists and engineers model robotic movement after its muscular geometry.

The Idemili community of Anambra State comprises two local government councils called Idemili North and Idemili South. In Idemili, pythons are not cursed; they are consecrated. They slither around freely into homes on silent feet; never bruised, nor battered.

The Awise Agbaye says some Yoruba communities worship pythons in the olden days because they believed that the founder of a community, upon death, turned into a python in the afterlife, where he sits on a stool to welcome members of his clan who attained old age before dying.

Many African folklore songs extol the python. One of such songs is ‘Terena’, by Dele Ojo. Another is ‘Sirinkusi’, which belongs in Yoruba oral history. The theme of both songs includes love and respect, with a young man trying to prove his prowess to a love-struck lady.

In ‘Terena’, the young man tells the lady not to call him ‘Awe’, that is, ‘Mister’, but ‘Aba’, which is ‘Father’. The lady refuses and the young man takes her on a journey where he respectively turns into a python, tiger and water, but the lady doesn’t budge. It was when he turned into fire that she eventually called him father.

I will call President Bola Ahmed Tinubu father. I will call him a python, too. With the way he has traversed Nigeria’s political terrain since 1999, no other politician qualifies to be called the Father and Python of Nigerian politics. Tinubu, it was, who wrestled to the ground the Federal Government headed by General Muhammadu Buhari, to emerge President against all odds.

Tinubu is the wiliest politician in the history of Nigeria. And I fear for him, lest the trap set by the tortoise entraps the tortoise. I remember, the level-headed Tafawa Balewa faced opposition, the sage, Obafemi Awolowo, faced opposition, and the charismatic Zik of Africa faced opposition.

General Ibrahim Babangida, aka Maradona, was booted out of power. Though MKO Abiola rode on the back of popular support in 1993, he still faced opposition. And, before he died like a brief candle, General Ole, Sani Abacha, coerced Nigerians to support his self-perpetuation. Every Nigerian sang the name of Abacha. Those who didn’t sing fled the town before dawn.

Clearly, I remember, ‘Third Term’ agenda burnt the fingers of the hypocrite farmer in Ota after democracy returned to the country, even as the herdsman General fled to Katsina to enjoy his bounty in peace, two years ago.

Father Tinubu, the way everyone is falling to the anointing in Abuja is foreboding. I don’t know what will give, but something seems out of place and ready to give. Tinubu is the current father of Nigerian politics. I pray he lives longer than the ancient python. I wish he would stop deploying his massive muscles against opposition voices and his sons in Lagos, Rivers and elsewhere.

Though politicians cling to power when the nation gasps, the snake sheds its skin when it outgrows it. Though the snake strikes to protect its terrain, the politician steals to destroy his terrain. I pray Tinubu was the hissing snake that strikes corruption to death, and not the politician that kisses to steal.

Email: tundeodes2003@yahoo.com

Facebook: @Tunde Odesola

X: @Tunde_Odesola

News

CSO, Stakeholders Lament Impact Of Mining In Edo Communities, Want A Halt

Published

17 hours ago

June 13, 2025

Editor

A Civil Society Organization – The Ecological Action Advocacy Foundation (TEAF) – has called for an immediate halt to mining activities in Akoko-Edo Local Government Area of Edo State particularly in Igarra, Ipesi, Dagbala, among other communities.

The organization said the call became necessary in order for the companies operating in the area and the communities to come to a round table and discuss the terms and conditions of operations.

INFO DAILY reports that the one-day dialogue event drew participants from communities where mining activities are taking place in Akoko-Edo and the civil society community.

Speaking at the one-day Community Dialogue on Halting Extractive Activities in Akoko-Edo, an environmentalist and climate justice campaigner, Comrade Cadmus Atake-Enade, lamented that “mining and extractive activities have rendered community people hopeless in their own lands, hence need to stop.”

“We must stand in unity to halt these destructive activities and actions. We must stand firm to halt all forms of extractive activities that have destroyed our lives and wellbeing,” he added.

The environmentalist, who noted that “communities where extractions have taken place experience mostly negative impacts,” stressed that “mining and the extractive industries are among the most destructive sectors on the planet, especially for indigenous and farming communities.”

He added: “These activities pose grave threats to cultures and community life because it takes generations for them to recover from the damages done to their community environment.

“Most of these negative impacts are usually in the rural areas where smallholder agricultural production is carried out in Africa and where the bulk of extraction occurs.

“Most of our farmers are women and they are disproportionately affected by mining and extractive activities.”

Giving a damning narration on how a JSS 3 student lost her life in the course of looking for her daily bread,
Angela Alonge from Ipesi community, while listing the risk involved in mining sites, said “a JSS 3 student who went to look for her daily bread in one of the mining sites lost her steps and fell into the pit and died at the spot. A pit deep enough to contain a 10-storey building. It is pathetic.”

She added: “The children in our communities are used like rags. The children are fending for themselves and the family. The community does enjoy any positive impact from mining.”

Joseph Lawson from Igarra community, lamented that rather than being a blessing to the people, the reverse is the case, adding: “Mining ought to create jobs for the community but the reverse is the case. Mining could cause earthquakes.”

Lawson, who urged the state government to re-register the over fifty mining companies in the area with a view to regulating them, urged the government to also intervene in the incessant clash between the communities and the mining companies.

Also, Precious Momoh from Igarra, lamented that “God has blessed us with natural resources yet we are suffering. We have limestone that they use for road construction yet we have no road.”

He added: “We need empowerment and development in our communities. People cannot be earning billions from our communities while we remain in abject poverty. Also, there should be rules and regulations for these mining companies.”

News

Hope Rises As Ijaw Nation Wades Into Okomu Crisis

Published

1 day ago

June 13, 2025

Editor

Photo: File copy

There seems to be solution at sight to the crisis bedeviling Okomu community in Ovia South West Local Government Area of Edo State following the setting up of Peace and Conflict Resolution Committee by prominent Ijaw monarchs drawn from Edo, Ondo, Delta and Bayelsa states.

The setting up of the Peace and Conflict Resolution Committee by the Ijaw kings followed a request by His Royal Majesty, Pius Yanbor, the Pere (king) of Okomu Kingdom to his Ijaw brothers peres (king), appealing to them to intervene in the crisis that had led to the burning of houses and loss of lives.

Worried by the crisis and the consequent appeal by HRM Pius Yanbor, the Ijaw peres (kings), namely, HRM, Oboro Gbaraun II, the Pere of Gbaramatu Kingdom, Delta State; HRM, Zacheus Egbunu, the Agadagba of Arogbo Kingdom, Ondo State; HRM, Capt. Frank Okiakpe, the Pere of Gbaraun Kingdom, Bayelsa State; HRM, Joel Ibane, the Pere of Iduwini Kingdom, Delta State; HRM, Godwin Ogunoyibo, the Pere of Olodiama Kingdom, Edo State; HRM, Eseimokumor Ogonikara I, the Pere of Tubutoru Kingdom, Ondo State; HRM, Roman Bohan, the Pere of Furupagha Kingdom, Edo State, and HRM Stephen Ebikeme, the Pere of Oporomor Kingdom, Bayelsa State, in an acceptance memo of the Okomu king’s request which was made available to INFO DAILY stated: “We, the undersigned traditional rulers of Ijaw extraction, have unanimously aligned in agreement to take a deep dive into the crisis that has been rocking and bedeviling Okomu Kingdom for the past three years, with a view to providing respite and bringing lasting peace to the aforementioned kingdom.”

They continued: “This alignment however, is a fallout of a series of robust engagement amongst well-meaning and revered monarchs of Ijaw extraction, whose primary role in their various Kingdoms is to foster peace and unity.”

The Ijaw monarchs, thereafter, appointed Chief Sunday as the Chairman of the Peace and Conflict Resolution Committee, High Chief Pascal Akpofagha as the General Secretary and 16 other notable Ijaw sons from various kingdoms as members.

The 18-member committee is saddled with the responsibility of interfacing with the warring parties in the kingdom with a view to restoring lasting peace to the kingdom.

The revered Ijaw monarchs further expressed their commitment to providing the necessary support and work with the committee within the ambit of the law in order to ensure peace and harmony return to Okomu Kingdom.