Another June 12 Election Annulled

BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

Twenty four years after the June 12 federal election in Nigeria that was strongly believed to have been won by Bashorun MKO Abiola but got annulled, the election held by a faction of the basketball stakeholders on June 12 this year in Kano has suffered the same fate.
According to a media release signed by the special assistant to the sports minister, Nneka Ikem Anibeze, while announcing the sports minister’s approval of the decisions arrived at by the elections appeal committee,

The statement from the office of the sports minister while hailing the decisions of the elections appeal committee declared the Basketball Federation elections held in Abuja valid as it was held under the supervision of the two monitoring bodies with no petition received from any aggrieved stakeholder. The Abuja NBBF election was held the same day with 29 of the other sports federations on Tuesday June 13.
The statement from the sports minister’s office by implication has invalidated the June 12 election.
According to the Permanent Secretary Abdulrazak Salau, “the Basketball Federation’s election held in Abuja was widely televised and documented and monitored by the Nigeria Olympic Committee and the Ministry of Youth and Sports”.