{"id":152045,"date":"2025-02-21T08:23:22","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T07:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/forces-pretending-to-be-friends-wouldve-assassinated-mko-abiola-ibb"},"modified":"2025-02-21T08:23:22","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T07:23:22","slug":"forces-pretending-to-be-friends-wouldve-assassinated-mko-abiola-ibb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/forces-pretending-to-be-friends-wouldve-assassinated-mko-abiola-ibb","title":{"rendered":"Forces pretending to be friends would\u2019ve assassinated MKO Abiola \u2013 IBB"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Former Military Head of State, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, IBB, has said forces pretending to be friends would have eliminated MKO Abiola if he was declared the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.<\/p>\n<p>Babangida admitted that there were formidable forces against Abiola\u2019s emergence as president.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking during the launch of his book, \u201cA Journey in Service\u201d in Abuja, the former military Head of State, said he was afraid that Abiola\u2019s assassination would lead to a civil war.<\/p>\n<p>According to Babangida: \u201cUnfortunately, the forces gathered against him after the June 12 elections were so formidable that I was convinced that if he became President, he would be quickly eliminated by the same forces who pretended to be his friends.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile I accept that the unfortunate denial of his mandate amounted to a subversion of the will of the Nigerian people, I was petrified that if Abiola got killed, it could lead to a civil war.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHaving participated in one civil war, with all its horrors, pains and devastation, I wasn\u2019t prepared to see another.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am gratified that the Buhari administration finally recognised MKO Abiola as a \u2018former head of state.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During the book launch, IBB admitted that Abiola won the presidential election in 1993.<\/p>\n<p>He also recounted some of the events that surrounded the annulment of the election, which he regretted.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Former Military Head of State, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, IBB, has said forces pretending to be friends would have eliminated MKO Abiola if he was declared the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election. Babangida admitted that there were formidable forces against Abiola\u2019s emergence as president. Speaking during the launch of his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":152044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[4222,254],"class_list":["post-152045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-ibb","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Forces pretending to be friends would\u2019ve assassinated MKO Abiola \u2013 IBB - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/forces-pretending-to-be-friends-wouldve-assassinated-mko-abiola-ibb\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Forces pretending to be friends would\u2019ve assassinated MKO Abiola \u2013 IBB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Former Military Head of State, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, IBB, has said forces pretending to be friends would have eliminated MKO Abiola if he was declared the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election. Babangida admitted that there were formidable forces against Abiola\u2019s emergence as president. 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