Various activities to mark the 20th anniversary of the annulment of the June 12, 1993, general elections in which presidential aspirant, Moshood Abiola, appeared to be leading at the polls, have commenced. Nigerian Telegraph is in possession of the transcript of the last interview granted by the late statesman.

Excerpts:

BBC: What is happening in your house? Are you being arrested?
MKO: I am being arrested. I am just going out now with the police (MKO and supporters are singing the national anthem)…Hello­. There is a large crowd here. I am being escorted out to detention by singing the national anthem.

BBC: Why are they arresting you?
MKO: They are arresting me on an allegation of felony—namely treason or something like that. They are not doing anything, they are just taking me away. Please let me go, you know I am delaying them (police).

BBC: And so where are you? Are you in your car?
MKO: I am in my car now.

BBC: Is it police who are with you in your car or are they escorting you?
MKO: The commissioner of police is in the car with me and my senior wife (Kudirat) is in the car with me

BBC: Why are they letting you talk on the phone to the BBC while they are in the middle of arresting you?
MKO: They have come to arrest me, not to arrest my mouth! (laughs).

BBC: You sound very cheerful about it Chief Abiola?
MKO: Of course (laughing). It is all part of democracy here.

BBC: And you are happy to go to the police and await whatever charges they are going to file against you?
MKO: I am not in any way disturbed by it. Any sacrifice is in order. If it will bring democracy, peace and posterity to Nigeria.*

BBC: Is it possible to speak to the commissioner of police who is with you in the car?
MKO: I don’t know if the commissioner of police is authorised to talk; he cannot talk to the press.

BBC: What is your advice now to your supporters? Many of them we heard a moment ago?

MKO: I told them before I left home to just stay calm. It is very, very, important that they stay calm.

BBC: So you are appealing for calm? You don’t want them to take any direct action in your support?
MKO: NO, NO, NO, NO.

BBC: You still say you are the President of Nigeria; but it is not much good if you are going to be in jail?
MKO: Well……, Mandela was in jail for 27 years; Kenyatta was in jail. I suppose that is one of the qualifications you need in this part of the world. Don’t worry yourself my friend.

Editor’s note: MKO Abiola was never seen in public again.

Bigcake: MORAL LESSON ; no two Mandelas can be in one continent. Nigeria is not south Africa.

Bigcake: MORAL LESSON ; no two Mandelas can be in one continent. Nigeria is not south Africa.

Bigcake: MORAL LESSON ; no two Mandelas can be in one continent. Nigeria is not south Africa.

BBC: And you are happy to go to the police and await whatever charges they are going to file against you?

MKO: I am not in any way disturbed by it. Any sacrifice is in order. If it will bring democracy, peace and posterity to Nigeria.*

Billyonaire: MKO was not perfect. He was not a saviour~ Fela knew him better and sang some hymns about this man. Today, we call him martyr cos we did not know the man. He was the reason Nigeria is where it is today. IBB might be an evil genius, but Nigeria is better today, than it would have been if she was pocketed by the political billionaire called MKO. Who sponsored many coupe detat and sinked millions of copies of bibles in the Atlantic Ocean just to stall Christianism.

MKO was a very good and a very bad man. He was not to be~

Archmed: Like it or not,June 12---was a watershed in Nigeria's political life.
It defined d true essence of democracy,the struggle for justice and for d 1st time d common will of Nigerians to unite and take their destiny in their own hands.
Long live the matyrs of d struggle!!