CSOs slam Sowunmi over disparaging remarks on late Abiola

The June 12 Mandate Coalition (J12MC) has strongly condemned current statements made by a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain and a member of the Tinubu Campaign Council, Ṣẹgun Ṣowunmi, relating to the late Chief M.Okay.O. Abiola, describing Ṣowunmi as a “desperately hungry politician and a poor student of history.”

Therefore, the coalition has issued a strict ultimatum urging Ṣowunmi to retract his offensive assertion instantly and supply an unreserved apology to the Abiola household and the Nigerian individuals.

The coalition’s response follows what it describes as “an irresponsible and senseless statement” credited to Ṣowunmi, the place he asserted that anybody who pronounces or reveals election leads to 2027 apart from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will go to jail similar to M.Okay.O. Abiola.

The J12MC famous that not even President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a fellow actor within the June 12 battle, would ever make such disparaging, insensitive, and reckless remark in opposition to the image of Nigeria’s present democracy.

In a robust assertion issued at present and signed by its National President, Comrade Mark Adebayo – a frontline June 12 activist and writer of the 300-page e book on Abiola’s June 12 struggles, “Martyred by Killer Owls – M.K.O.”  – the coalition lambasted Ṣowunmi for his historic revisionism and opportunism.

“Chief M.K.O. Abiola is universally and officially respected as the hero whose supreme sacrifice and blood birthed the current democratic dispensation that opportunists like Ṣẹgun Ṣowunmi are enjoying today,” Adebayo said.

“To compare a future regulatory or electoral guidelines warning to the systemic, brutal, and unjust incarceration of the custodian of a stolen sacred mandate is the height of historio-political illiteracy.”

The coalition reminded the general public that “Chief Abiola’s well-liked mandate, freely given by Nigerians within the historic June 12, 1993 election, was criminally annulled by navy dictatorship.

“Abiola was entirely justified, legally and morally, in declaring himself president and fighting for the actualisation of that mandate. He did so with unmatched courage and paid the ultimate price, refusing to compromise the will of the Nigerian people. He was never a coward like a Ṣowunmi.”

The J12MC said that it will not stand by whereas the legacy of Nigeria’s best democratic martyr was desecrated by people searching for low-cost political relevance.

“Consequently, the coalition has issued a strict ultimatum: Ṣẹgun Ṣowunmi should retract his offensive assertion instantly and supply an unreserved apology to the Abiola household and the Nigerian individuals.

“Failure to take action will lead to a direct and indefinite ban of Ṣẹgun Ṣowunmi from attending or collaborating in any civil society gathering or pro-democracy occasion nationwide.

“Henceforth and until further notice, this political scavenger is declared a persona non grata in Nigeria’s Civil Society circles”, concludes the assertion.