Former Nigeria Aviation Minister and chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Femi Fani-Kayode Wednesday called for the death penalty for murderers of the Chief Moshood Abiola.
Abiola, the presumed winner of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election died while in prison when General Abdulsalami Abubakar took over after Abacha’s death.
He was imprisoned by the Abacha military government for refusing to renounce his mandate as the elected President of Nigeria.
Twenty one years after, the controversy around the sudden death of Abiola on the day he was due to be released from prison has not resolved.
Successive governments ignored aside calls for Abiola to be honoured and for the federal government to recognise June 12 as democracy day.
On June 6, 2018, President Muhammadu Buhari conferred Abiola with nation’s highest honour, the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic, GCFR – the honour is exclusively conferred only on presidents and former presidents, and also declared June 12 as Democracy Day.
However, Fani-Kayode believes the “best way” to honor Abiola is not just to declare June 12th as Democracy Day “but to also bring those that killed him to justice.”
“They must be exposed and prosecuted for murder,” he tweeted.
“It is only after that is done that the ghost of June 12th will die and Nigeria will have peace,” he added.
In 2018, Fani-Kayode accused United States officials of complicity in Abiola’s death.
“I believe that [Thomas] Pickering and [Susan] Rice, both of whom work for the CIA, poisoned Abiola just as I believe that the 2 Indian girls that spent the night in the Villa with Gen. Sani Abacha and fed him the poisoned apple that killed him one month earlier to the day were also CIA,” Fani-Kayode tweeted in March 2018.
