The judge who annulled the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Nigeria’s freest and fairest poll ever conducted in the history of the country, Dahiru Saleh, has died.
This was confirmed to The Cable by a family source, who said he was buried at the palace of the emir of Azare around 4:30pm on Thursday.
Until his death, the late judge held the title of “Mutawalle” of Katagum emirate in Bauchi. He was the chief judge of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court.
The June 12, 1993 election, adjudged as the most credible in the history of the country, was presumably won by multimillionaire business mogul, philanthropist and publisher of the defunct Concord Newspapers, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, of the then Social Democratic Party, SDP.
Abiola later died in controversial circumstances in detention following his arrest by the late Gen Sani Abacha who succeeded Babangida as Nigeria’s military ruler, after he, Abacha, pushed aside the Interim President Ernest Sonekan, after his famous Epetedo Declaration where he, Abiola, declared himself President, in defiance of the military junta’s position.
In the watershed election, conducted by erudite University of Nigeria Nsukka Political Science Professor, Humphrey Nwosu, as the then National Electoral Commission, NEC, Chairman, Abiola, who was already leading Bashir Tofa, his National Republican Convention rival, by a wide margin, was coasting home to a resounding victory when suddenly, the exercise was cancelled ahead of the final announcement of results, on the order of the then ruling military junta headed by retired Gen Ibrahim Babangida.
Specifically, Saleh had annulled the election based on the order of Babaginda, the self styled military president. The decree of Babaginda ousted the jurisdiction of courts.
The annulment of the election threw the country into chaos as protesters hit the streets, calling on Babangida to step down.
Babaginda had eventually stepped aside, while Ernest Shonekan took over as interim president but Sani Abacha, the late military dictator, overthrew Shonekan less than three months later.
Abiola was later arrested by the regime of Abacha and he died in detention.
The annulment of the election threw Nigeria into a protracted and bloody struggle by pro democracy activists, whose arrowhead was the National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, led by the late revered Chief Michael Adekunle Ajasin and later by Chief Abraham Aderibigbe Adesanya, to re-validate it.
The unrelenting struggle, during which many activists were killed by bombs and their property burnt, eventually forced the military junta to hand over power to the civilians in 1999.
Born on August 22, 1939, Saleh attended Azare Primary School between 1948 and 1951; Azare Senior Primary School between 1952 and 1955; and Barewa College, Zaria from 1956 to 1960.
He then proceeded to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and later Council of Legal Education London.
