The Lagos State Government has declared Friday work free, in commemoration of the June 12, 1993 presidential election widely presumed to have been won by the late Chief Moshood Abiola but annulled by then military government of General Ibrahim Babangida.
In a statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, Mr. Habib Aruna, the government said that June 12 marked a watershed in the annals of transparent, free and fair elections in the country.
It said that June 12, 1993 was the day Nigerians voted in one voice across ethnic, racial and religious lines, adding that it represented the real Democracy Day when Nigerians said ‘No’ to voting along ethnic lines.
“Regrettably, 22 years after the annulment, the Nigerian nation is still grappling with some of the vices which the June 12, 1993 elections sought to confine to the dustbin of history through undue clinging to ethnic cleavages by some political gladiators,” the statement read.
The government urged residents to spend the day in sober reflection and in remembrance of the martyrs of the June 12, 1993 election who “laid the foundation of the democracy which the nation is now enjoying.”
