Afenifere faults Kingibe on June 12

Afaction of the panYoruba Afenifere group has faulted a comment credited to the former vice presidential candidate of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) Ambassador Babagana Kingibe on the June 12 struggle.

Kingibe, the Secretary to the Federal Government during the Umaru Yar’ Adua administration, was quoted as saying that following the APC victory in the last presidential election, “the ghost of June 12” should be laid to rest.

The June 12, 1993 presidential election was widely presumed to have been won by the defunct SDP candidate, late Chief Moshood Abiola, whose vice-presidential candidate was Kingibe, but the election, described by many as the freest and fairest ever in the country, was annulled by the then military government.

The Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) yesterday said Kingibe had betrayed the June 12 struggle, but that the struggle would remain an albatross to all those who betrayed the cause, particularly Kingibe.

The group in a statement released in Lagos by its Publicity Secretary, Kunle Famoriyo, said: “As the vice-president elect, Kingibe ought to be the captain of the ship for the June 12 struggle when Chief Moshood Abiola was arrested but he was the first to jump ship. ARG understands that Kingibe may have missed being in the corridors of power and may be itching to have a voice that could be reckoned with as credible, hence his wish to have June 12 ‘laid to rest’.

“Kingibe’s undemocratic and treacherous antecedents disqualify him from commenting on or identifying with the success of a democratic campaign. Instead of wishing that June 12 be forgotten, it is better for him to retrace his steps and purge himself of ethnocentric perspectives”, the statement said.

It noted

that

June

12 successfully hoisted the flag of democracy in Nigeria and each positive step that Nigeria takes towards good governance, true federalism, and concrete nationhood would continue to haunt those who played roles in subverting its cause.

The group urged the new administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to formally recognise the June 12 mandate and honour those who lost their lives in the struggle to actualise the mandate.