The newspaper review for Monday, June 11, leads with an accusation by the presidency that military officers, elites and judges conspired against MKO Abiola the said winner of the June 12, 1993 election.
Presidency has accused military officers, elites, judges and moneybags of being behind the conspiracy that saw the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election thought to have been won by Chief Moshood Abiola.
Vanguard reports that senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, on Sunday, June 10, said those that played roles towards the annulment of the election have expressed anger over the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to acknowledge Abiola and his running mate Alhaji Babagana Kingibe with national awards.
The Vanguard newspaper for Monday, June 11, photo credits: snapshot from NAIJ.com
Shehu accused some of the elites of ganging up against Buhari’s government because the free money they used to get was no longer flowing.
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He said: “An old Chinese proverb says: Do good, reap good; do evil, reap evil. This short proverb sums the intensity of attacks against President Muhammadu Buhari, not leaving the ratcheting up of violence in some of the states after a period of relative calm, in the wake of the political tsunami honouring the heroes of June 12, 1993 presidential election, which was annulled, thus preventing the widely-acclaimed winner, Chief M.K.O Abiola (of blessed memory) from taking office as the President of Nigeria.
“Even at that time, it was pretty obvious that the unjust annulment was a huge elite conspiracy, well beyond the schemes and machinations, for which the then Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida, had established a formidable reputation.
“June 12 annulment was inspired and supported in spirit, cash and in kind by high-level citizens who saw an opportunity for themselves and cashed in on it.
“Beyond the coterie of two dozen or so military officials whose names have been documented as literally having had a gun to the head of their Commander-in-Chief in trying to induce the annulment, there were tens, possibly hundreds of co-conspirators who either forced the annulment in one way or the other, or joined the sustenance of the injustice done to Abiola and Nigerian voters which, from then evolved into an industry of a kind, supplying incomes and conferring privileges of state upon those in the plot."
In another report, the southern and middle belt leaders forum has demanded the removal of the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmoud Yakubu, on the grounds that he may be incapable of delivering free and fair elections in 2019.
The Punch reports that the forum at a press conference in Abuja on Sunday, June 10, claimed that the commission had been influenced by the said nepotism and sectionalism in the current administration.
The Punch newspaper for Monday, June 11, photo credits: snapshot from NAIJ.com
Some of the leaders who reportedly attended the meeting included Chief Edwin Clark, representing the south-south, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, south-west; Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife, south-sast; Air Commodore Dan Suleiman (retd.), middle belt; Air Commodore Nkanga Idongesit, south-south, and others.
Speaking on behalf of the group, the chairman of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, Idongesit, insisted that retaining the service chiefs who ought to have retired and keeping Yakubu as INEC boss were suspicious.
He said: “From 1960 till date, only President Muhammadu Buhari has been audacious to pick only people who are either his relations or of the same ethnic stock with him to lead the electoral body.
“The Balewa Government headed by a Northerner appointed Prof. Eyo Ita Esua from the South, who was in charge of the Federal Electoral Commission from 1960-66; Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, a Yoruba, set up the Federal Electoral Commission under Michael Ani (1976-1979). When Dr Goodluck Jonathan came in from the South-South, he appointed Prof. Attahiru Jega from the North-West (June 2010-Oct. 2015).”
The group pointed out that it was only President Buhari who appointed his relation from the north-west, Mrs Amina Zakari, as the acting INEC chairman when he became President in 2015 before he appointed Yakubu from the north-east as a substantive chairman.
“The relationship between the powerful Amina Zakari and the INEC chairman is so strong that it has the tendency to influence the outcome of the elections in favour of the appointee,” the Southern and Middle Belt leaders stressed.
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Idongesit said the directive by the minister of defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, for states that had enacted the anti-open grazing law to scrap it was offensive.
Meanwhile, some elder statesmen have described President Muhammadu Buhari’s declaration of June 12 as Democracy Day as a mere political stunt.
Guardian reports that in separate interviews, the elder statesmen urged the president to return the country to true federalism to prove that the June 12 declaration was not a stunt.
The Guardian newspaper for Monday, June 11, photo credits: snapshot from NAIJ.com
Amos Akingba, chieftain of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO); Ayo Adebanjo of the Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere; President of PanNdigbo National Forum, Guy Ikokwu; and Tony Uranta, executive secretary of the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) insisted no amount of tinkering with the June 12 issue would quell yearnings for a restructured federation.
Sill on the June 12 declaration, a stalwart of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has said the best way to immortalise the late MKO Abiola was to fight poverty.
The Nation reports that Tinubu made the statement on Sunday, June 10, when he received the wives and children of late Abiola who were on a visit to his residence in Lagos.
The Nation newspaper for Monday, June 11, photo credits: snapshot from NAIJ.com
Tinubu said: “We’ve continued to struggle for this day that this injustice must be corrected to become part of our history. And if we truly are democrats, we must take the fulfilment of the date as a dream that must be realised and that has come from a military man, a man of military background, who is now truly committed to democratic principles and values. We must adopt now hope and farewell to poverty as next crusade to continue to immortailse the beliefs and values of MKO Abiola”
To business news, This Day reports that Nigeria’s external reserves which hit a five-year high in the first quarter of 2018, fell by a total of $329 million, to $47.425 billion as of June 7, compared with the $47.754 billion it attained on May 21.
This Day newspaper for Monday, June 11, photo credits: snapshot from NAIJ.com
The newspaper states that a hike in US interest rate would mean an increased return for FPIs who may also be concerned about political risk in Nigeria.
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Source: Naija.ng
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