Posted by Tunde Lemuel on
In an apparent response to those who have been calling him a coward for waiting for over 15 years before opening up on the events of the 12 June presidential election annulment in 1993, the former boss of the electoral body, Prof. Humphrey Nwosu, while answering questions this morning on Sunrise, aired on Channels Television, said he is not a coward.
In an apparent response to those who have been calling him a coward for waiting for over 15 years before opening up on the events of the 12 June presidential election annulment in 1993, the former boss of the electoral body, Prof. Humphrey Nwosu, while answering questions this morning on Sunrise, aired on Channels Television, said he is not a coward.
'I pursued the matter in a court of law so that we can announce the results. Is that the attitude of a coward?'' he queried.
'Some people who are now democrats, even NADECO chieftains, ran away. Some served under the Abacha government. Onagoruwa was the Attorney General and Minister of Justice under Abacha. They all collaborated with Abacha. Why should people call the book bullshit? I wondered why the press did not follow up the process to announce the results of that election. Abiola and Tofa knew the results of that election."
On why it took him so long to write the book, Nwosu said, 'I have the right to write or not to write. There is no law compelling me to write. By the time Abacha died, I was already an ordinary Nigerian. It has no meaning if I had tried to talk or not. I feel Nigerians need to know what happened to the freest and fairest election the nation had ever held. Umar commended me for this. He said that the annulment was purely at the military insistence."
Nwosu stressed that the nation should return to 2 party system as we had in the past.
He said that the book he has written the June 12, 1993 episode is not meant to please anybody but to state the facts as they were.
Meanwhile, Facts are still emerging on what led to the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election in Nigeria by General Ibrahim Babangida (retd).
Speaking this morning on a television programme on AIT, the National Chairman of Labour Party, Barrister Dan Nwanyabwu said: 'While (MKO) was in hospital as a result of his swollen legs, he told me that IBB wanted him to pick Pascal Bafyau as his running mate. But that the SDP governors wanted and eventually picked Babagana Kingibe. That was the number one problem we had."
He said that 'the NEC chairman should have announced the election results since he had held the election despite court order barring him from conducting the elections. Nwanyanwu also called on the Electoral Reform Committee to do away with multi-party system and embrace the two party system.
In his response to Nwanyanwu's comment, the chairman of the defunct National Electoral Commission, Professor Humphery Nwosu, who was also at the programme explained that 'by June 23, 1993, NEC had been dissolved.Therefore, on what platform would I have announced the results?
'The court orderd that no announcement should be made on the results. It was the duty of the Attorney-General to counter that order but he did not. I did talk about the two contending forces that did not want the results announced; one within the military and the other within the civilians.
'We had a meeting with Abacha at his house. I told him to allow us announce the results. I had not finished before he shouted me down, saying 層ho are you.' He ordered me to move to Aso Rock with my commissioners, some of whom were shaking."
Commenting on Option A4, Nwosu said, 'The president asked us to devise an indigenous system. We had eight options but Option A4 was selected. It was a system that allowed internal democracy within each party. Let there be two or three strong political parties that cut across political, ethnic and religious affiliations. Civilian dictatorship is worse than a military dictatorship."