A group, the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR) has urged President Bola Tinubu to name the Aso Rock Presidential Villa after the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Basorun Moshood Abiola.
The National President of the group, Debo Adeniran, made the plea in a letter dated June 14, a copy of which was obtained by TheHintsNews on Saturday.
The group recalled that in view of the importance of June 12 in the history of Nigeria, former President Muhammadu Buhari on 6 June, 2018, set the day aside as Nigeria’s Democracy Day.
However, it noted that it was still waiting for the proper recognition of Abiola as a former president.
It added that it was disappointed that after the president’s speech on June 12, Abiola wasn’t recognised as a former president.
The group said it believed there was nothing too much to give a man who sacrificed his life for the enthronement of democracy in the country.
It added that Tinubu was always known to be part and parcel of the struggle for democracy in which Abiola sacrificed his life, saying it looked up to the President to complete the process of honouring Abiola by declaring him the winner of June 12 elections.
It said: “To this end, we at The Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR) were taken aback and our hopes were dashed during and after your Democracy day speech.
“This was due to the fact that we expected you to declare MKO Abiola as a former President of our great country.
“The immediate past President, Buhari has surpassed you by recognising the day and making it democracy day to be celebrated by all and sundry in the country.
“We expected you to go a step further by recognizing him as a former President and even naming June 12, M.K.O Abiola Day to be fashioned after the famous Martin Luther King Jr. Day which is a federal holiday in the United States observed on the third Monday of January each year.
“We believe there is nothing too much to give a man who sacrificed his life for the enthronement of democracy in the country, hence it will be more gratifying if the Aso Rock Presidential Villa is named after him.”