A former General Secretary of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, Chief Frank Kokori, has slammed Chief Tony Anenih over his claim that he advised Chief M.K.O Abiola not to declare himself President.
Chief Anenih was the national chairman of the defunct Social Democratic Party, SDP, the platform with which the late Abiola, presumably, won the controversial June 12, 1993 presidential election.
He was arrested after he declared himself as president. Abiola died in detention in July 1998.
In his autobiography entitled: My Life and Nigeria Politics, Anenih, 83, among others, said he wished Abiola listened to his advice against declaring himself president because “if he did, I believe he would, in all probability, still have been alive today.”
Reacting to this statement, Kokori told Vanguard on phone, yesterday that “I read the statement by Anenih and that was correct, even myself, who was a key player then was not told by Abiola. He never told me that he was going to declare himself President.
“But that does not hide the fact that Anenih as chairman of the defunct Social Democratic Party, SDP, which Abiola belonged to, betrayed Abiola and the June 12 struggle.
“Anenih scuttled June 12 and incapacitated the struggle for the actualisation of Abiola’s mandate. It was natural that Abiola declared himself President because he won the election and had the mandate of Nigerians to be President.”
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