IBB’s admission vindicated June 12 mandate advocates – Okorie

Elder statesman, Chief Chekwas Okorie, stated on Thursday that the admission by former military Head of State, Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (retd), that the late Chief MKO Abiola won the June 12, 1993, presidential election has vindicated the former National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the late Prof. Humphrey Nwosu, and all those who fought for the restoration of the mandate.

Babangida had, on Thursday, acknowledged for the first time since leaving office several years ago during the launch of his autobiography in Abuja that “upon reflection and closer examination of all available facts, particularly the detailed election results, which are published as an appendix to this book, there was no doubt that MKO Abiola won the June 12 election.”
Okorie, reacting to IBB’s public admission, insisted that he was lucky to have lived to admit responsibility for the action, which, he added, affected the development and growth of democracy in Nigeria.

Okorie said: “The thing is that IBB, first and foremost, has vindicated Prof. Humphrey Nwosu because, even in that book, in the aspect that he read himself, he acknowledged that it was under his watch that the template for the freest and fairest election was set, and that is Humphrey Nwosu’s template. So, Humphrey Nwosu, who announced that Abiola won, has been vindicated even in his death.

“Again, all of those who fought for the restoration of the mandate, including those who died, have also been vindicated, even though this does not come with any reparation or restitution to those who died avoidable deaths. If that mandate had been honoured as freely given by the people, all those who died as a result of the riots and protests that followed would not have lost their lives. It is now being proven that they fought a good cause, and their deaths should be remembered one way or another by the present government.”

He added that the third aspect of it is that IBB should be thanking his stars that he lived long enough to summon the courage to repent publicly and in writing of his sins against the democratic process.

He insisted that the country’s democracy could have advanced beyond its present level “if Abiola was allowed to actualise his mandate and the democratic process had continued from that time. But that annulment made it possible for the military to stay longer in politics until they came and introduced this system of election that did not allow the people’s mandate, the people’s choice, and votes to count. But all of these things are in the past. It is better that he didn’t leave anything again to imagination or speculation. He has cleared it. He has come up with the real truth. He has also reviewed his actions and accepted full responsibility as the Commander-in-Chief at the time it happened. He has repented of his sins, and it is left for God to now have mercy on him.