The Abiola family in Abeokuta, Ogun State yesterday demanded an official recognition of late Chief M.K.O Abiola as a former president of Nigeria. The head of the family, Chief Olanrewaju Abiola, made the demand on President Muhammadu Buhari at the family house in Abeokuta.

What The late M.K.O Abiola was believed to have won the June 12, 1993 presidential elections. Abiola said the recognition had become necessary for Nigerian leaders to rule in peace.

He commended Buhari for conferring a posthumus highest national honour of the Grand Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (GCFR) on late Abiola and recognising June 12 as Nigeria’s authentic Democracy Day.

He urged the president to actualise the mandate that Nigerians gave to his late junior brother, Moshood, on June 12, 1993, by conferring an official status of an ex-president of the nation on him. Abiola also demanded that all the entitlements that should have accrued to his late brother from 1993 to date should be fully paid to the family. He called on Buhari to liaise with the National Assembly to debate the issue and subsequently pass it as a law.

“On June 12, last year when I spoke with the president, he said he had given him the honour, but we want it in black and white. Let the members of the National Assembly debate it and pass it into law. “Moshood was the bread winner of the family and since his death, the family members have been suffering,” he said.

NAN