General Ibrahim Babangida Rtd (left) and Chief MKO Abiola
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After 25 years when the military junta then led by General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida annulled the presidential election, which was supposedly won by the late Moshood Kolawole Abiola aka MKO, incumbent Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, who was ironically part of the junta on Tuesday on behalf of the federal government of Nigeria tendered what he described as his unreserved apology for the annulment of the June 12 Presidential election, warning that the nation will never again accept such brazen denial of justice.
The President who said the recognition of June 12 of every year going forward as Democracy Day in the country was actually not meant to reopen old wounds, noted that it is aimed at correcting the wrongs that were done with the annulment of that election, as well as healing old wounds caused by the election. He noted that the event marked a new dawn in the nation’s political landscapes, added that the “action is to bury the negative side of June 12”
Former President Olusegun Obassnjo, former Military head of state Ibrahim Babangida and Humphrey Nwosu who was the Chairman of the National Electoral Commission (NECO) that conducted the annulled election had sent in apologizes for their inability to attend the investiture. Buhari, had earlier conferred Post-Humous national honours on Moshood Abiola as Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR), Gani Fawehinmi as the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON), as well as decorated Babagana Kingibe with the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON), at the event.
