Former Military President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) has said that the reason he annulled June 12, 1993, presidential election was to avert a violent coup d’etat.
Speaking on Friday in an interview on Arise TV, Babangida said, “If it materialised, there would’ve been a coup d’etat — which could have been violent. That’s all I can confirm.
“It didn’t happen thanks to the engineering and the ‘maradonic’ way we handled you guys in the society. But that could’ve given room for more instability in the country.”
The June 12, 1993, presidential election is still being adjudged by most Nigerians as the freest and fairest in the country’s democratic evolution.
The election was contested by Chief Moshood Abiola of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Bashir Tofa of the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC).
–THE NATION
