Fayose Reveals ‘Greatest’ Way Buhari Can Truly Honour MKO Abiola

Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has welcomed President Muhammadu Buhari’s declaration of June 12 as Nigeria’s new democracy day and the conferment of GCFR honours on the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993, presidential election, Chief MKO Abiola.

Fayose, however, said for Buhari to bestow the ‘‘greatest honours’’ on the calibre of the revered late South West politician, the president must ensure ‘‘total respect for the rule of law and conduct of free, fair and credible elections’’ in 2019.

The governor recalled that the Ekiti State Government had declared June 12, 2017, as public holiday in honour of Abiola for his presumed victory in the presidential election in 1993.

Meanwhile, MKO Abiola’s daughter, Hafsat Abiola-Costello, has expressed gratitude for the long overdue national honours bestowed on her late father by President Buhari.

Abiola-Costello said the honours ‘‘demonstrated to my bruised heart that integrity, fairness, honour were alive and well in a country for which both my parents had sacrificed their lives.’’

She, however, knocked former President Olusegun Obasanjo for failing to recognise her late father, saying the former president’s ‘‘first four years passed and it became clear that the goal was to erase the name of the man whose sacrifice paved the way for our democracy.’’