Richard Akinnola II AN OPEN INVITATION FOR MILITARY COUP BY THE POLITICAL CLASS AND THE NEED TO RESIST THIS Suite 1034 of Abuja Sheraton hotel was the control room. This was the place that served as the incubator where the anti - June 12 plans were hatched. Bashorun MKO Abiola must never win the fast - approaching June 12, 1993 election. General Ibrahim Babangida must continue in office as military president for another four years. That was the game plan. Present at this meeting of May 8, 1993 were Chief Francis Arthur Nzeribe, leader of the Association for Better Nigeria (ABN), an organisation set up and funded by IBB to scuttle the 1993 democratic March. Others at the meeting included Abimbola Davies, Director of Operations of ABN, Clement Akpamgbo, Attorney General of the federation and legal strategist, Brigadier Haliru Akilu, Babangidas chief spook and links man with the ABN and Brigadier - General David Mark, another Babangida acolyte. This days mission was to finalise arrangements on how to file a suit at Abuja High Court to stop the election scheduled for June 12. After endorsing the affidavit drawn up by Nzeribe, Akpamgbo took it to Oguta, Nzeribes home town for fine - tuning. Here, it was decided that a yoruba man, Abiolas tribal kinsman should be the plaintiff in order to reinforce the believe that the suit had no tribal colouration. And the lot fell on Abimbola Davies, the Organisations Director of Operations to stand in as the plaintiff. Back in Abuja, having perfected this, there was a problem. A pliable judge had to be secured to hear the case and Akilu was mandated to contact the Chief Judge of Abuja, Dahiru Saleh, who was close to the government and a willing accomplice in the conspiracy against democracy. Akilu was to make sure that the case was assigned to a trusted judge who would do their bidding. But the trusted judge was out of town and had to be awaited before the case was assigned. The Judge, Bassey Ikpeme was quickly recalled from Lagos where she was on a brief visit. Justice Ikpeme, a close associate of the justice minister, Akpamgbo did not hesitate in doing their bidding by stopping the election on the night of June 10, two days to the election. Prof Humphrey Nwosu, the NEC Chairman proceeded with the election. But the same evil forces, through the imprematur of IBB, stopped the final release of the results when it was obvious that Abiola was coasting to victory. The rest is history, leading to an interim government that was overthrown by the military. Why this long background? We are trudging the same path. The evil forces are at work again, planning to scuttle the February election. They are arm twisting the judiciary workers who are on strike to call off the strike so that someone, probably a northerner, would be sponsored to go to court to stop the election. In the ensuing deadlock and political confusion, l envisage a military intervention in our political affairs and this would be disastrous for the country. We need to raise our voices and warn of the dire consequences of these contemplated moves. Our political class, out of desperation should not inadvertently invite the military. This is not about Buhari or Jonathan, this is about our country. All of us, the media, civil society, lawyers and the politicians would all be victims if we allow the military to come back. We cant cut our nose to spite our face. This election must hold. Dont play into the hands of the military. That would draw us back 20 years. The desperate politicians should allow democracy thrive in our country. God bless Nigeria.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 10:33:15 +0000
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