Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) has called on President Bola Tinubu to name Aso Rock Presidential Villa after the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief MKO Abiola. CDHR added that it was still waiting for the proper recognition of Abiola as a former president. The group said it believed that there was nothing too much to give a man who sacrificed his life for the enthronement of democracy in the country.
CDHR National President, Debo Adeniran, made the appeal in a letter dated June 14, 2024 and addressed to Tinubu, a copy of which was made available to THISDAY on Sunday. The group said it was disappointed that after the president’s speech on June 12, Abiola was not recognised as a former president. It recalled that given the importance of June 12 in the history of Nigeria, former President Muhammadu Buhari, on June 6, 2018, set the day aside as Nigeria’s Democracy Day.
CDHR stated, “Democracy Day carries huge significance for many Nigerians. It was on this date in 1993 that a general election was held for the first time since the 1983 military coup, which toppled the democratically-elected government of the late former President Shehu Shagari. Many observers have described the event as the most significant in Nigeria’s post-independence political history.
“To this end, we at the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) were taken aback and our hopes were dashed during and after your Democracy Day speech. This was.
