Afam Aminu Chimezie, Onitsha.
Former military President of Nigeria who ruled the country with an iron hand for eight years, Rtd.Gen.Ibrahim Babangida has been asked to prepare for arrest and possible prosecution for crimes he committed against citizens of Nigeria while he was President.
Babangida had a few days ago launched his autobiography, “The Journey So Far. where he apologized for the annulment of the 1993 June 12 Presidential Election won by Social Democratic Party Candidate (SDP), Bashorun MKO Abiola against his National Republican rival Bashir Tofa from Kano State, While Abiola was a Yoruba Southerner from Ogun State.
In his autobiography launched at Abuja, the former President wholly admitted that Abiola won that election with a large margin, but forces surrounding him forced him to annul the most credible and freest election ever held in Nigeria.
The former ruler held that the country was not yet ripe for democracy at that time even after spending billions of naira building Party houses for SDP and NRC edifices throughout all the Local Government Areas in the country in preparation for a return to democracy.
Coming out after thirty – two to admit the annulment, which threw the nation into political turmoil, the former President admitted that he feared a civil war following that annulment won by Abiola.
In response to the admittance of the former military ruler over Abiola’s victory in the election, an Onitsha-based legal practitioner and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Ben Uzuegbu, in his remark, blasted the former military President for wasting innocent lives of Nigerians during the political impasse.
He frowned at the way and manner in which the election was canceled because of the greed and ambitions of one single man and his colleagues.
He said that IBB and the military never wanted to handover because of what they were enjoying as rulers and called on International Criminal Court (ICC) and Interpol to order the arrest of IBB because of the annulment of the June 12 Presidential Election of1993 and other mysterious death of senior military officers in various plane crashes across the country.
“What about the death of his close friend and military poet, Gen. Mamman Vatsa. What about Dele, who died in a letter bomb? All accusing fingers were pointed at Babangida among other mysterious deaths of Nigerians under his administration. Babangida must be called upon to answer these charges before the ICC, just like Charles Taylor, Slobodan Milosevic, and Pot, among others, who were forced to answer their crimes against humanity even in old age.
