MKO Abiola/File
The most suitable way to honour late Moshood Abiola is to conduct a free and fair election in 2019, says President of Women Arise and Centre for Change, Joe Okei-Odumakin.
President Muhammadu Buhari had recently declared June 12 Nigeria’s Democracy Day in honour of Abiola who was adjudged winner of the 1993 presidential elections that was annulled by the military junta.
However, in a statement on Friday, Okei-Odumakin said, “Entrenching the true spirit of June 12 which is free and fair elections is the best way to immortalise MKO.
“He was a leader that displayed uncommon courage, unparalleled dignity and unusual honesty in the defence of the mandate reposed in him by change-seeking Nigerians who trooped out to vote for him in 1993 and engaged all the illegal regimes that held sway while he languished in jail.
“Abiola was eliminated after over four years of incarceration and his blunt refusal to compromise his principled belief that a mandate given by over 14 million Nigerians cannot be overturned by one gap-toothed general and few aides in crime.
“Twenty years after his elimination, Abiola still stands tall than all his adversaries and murderers. He represents what Nigeria is capable of being but which we are not because of the machinations of a greedy cabal.
“A free and credible election is the best way we can immortalise him and keep his memory fresh in our minds.”