Written by Olayinka Olukoya
Friday, 09 July 2010

The eldest daughter of the late acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief MKO Abiola, Honourable Lola Abiola-Edewor, has called on the National Assembly to give the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) full autonomy to avoid annulment of elections in the country.

Abiola-Edewor, a senatorial aspirant under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said this at a public lecture organised by the Ogun State chapter of the Campaign for Democracy (CD), in commemoration of the 12th anniversary of her father’s death, which was attended largely by student bodies, market men and women, labour leaders and other activists. She stated that there was the need to guard against the ugly event of the June 12, 1993 election, which was widely believed to be the freest and fairest in the history of Nigeria.

“The lesson of June 12 and Abiola’s struggle should be etched in our history. I, therefore, call on the National Assembly to quickly round off their constitution amendment and give INEC the kind of independence and autonomy required so that no annulment will be recorded in the country again.

“If INEC had been properly independent and autonomous, nobody would have been able to annul the election that we had 17 years ago,” she added.

She also called on the Federal Government to immortalise her late father for the role he played in the country’s democracy.

She said, “The Federal Government should immortalise Abiola. But if they failed to do that, his name will never be forgotten; his name will remain indelible in the minds of Nigerians.”