Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, Festus Keyamo has said the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu will address the June 12, 1993 anomaly if elected.
Gatekeepers News reports that Keyamo in a series of tweets described Tinubu as “a true hero of June 12.”
The June 12 1993 presidential election was won by the late philanthropist, Chief M.K.O Abiola, but the election was annulled by the military junta headed by Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (retd), for inconsiderate reasons.
Keyamo, while recounting the events that surround the June 12 election through his Twitter handle, stated that the election of “BAT(Tinubu) in 2023, a June 12 hero, will largely assuage that feeling.”
The Minister wrote, “No Presidential candidate today had ANYTHING to do with the June 12 struggle (which is the foundation of democracy we are enjoying today) except BAT & (to be honest) Sowore as a student leader, but BAT was more pivotal from exile. Atiku was one of the first to abandon June 12.
“After the June 12 struggle, ‘strangers’ emerged from nowhere and hijacked the democratic train at the center; OBJ who opposed June 12 became the greatest beneficiary of the struggle. The election of BAT in 2023, a true hero of June 12, will largely address this anomaly of 1999.
“Some feel the Yorubas weren’t compensated by the election of OBJ in 1999; he wasn’t the choice of the Yoruba,s because he betrayed the cause of June 12, hence they rejected him at the polls in 1999. The election of BAT in 2023, a June 12 hero, will largely assuage that feeling.”
Keyamo stressed that he could speak on these because, “apart from defending NADECO leaders in court with my late boss Gani Fawehinmi, on Oct. 1, 1994, we launched the National Conscience movement to fight for June 12 & on June 11, 1995, I along with other comrades were arrested by the DSS and detained.
“When I left Gani Fawehinmi late in 1995, I started a youth movement to prevent the self-succession bid of Abacha & to oppose Kanu who was promoting that bid. We were collecting signatures on the streets to petition the UN when we were picked up by the military junta & detained.”
