I Annulled June 12, Not IBB - Dahiru Saleh

Justice Dahiru Saleh

Justice Dahiru Saleh is the Judge who made the judicial pronouncement annulling the June 12, 1993 presidential election, an action that plunged the country into a major political crisis. In this encounter with The Interview he attempts to explain the circumstances surrounding the infamous ruling he gave from the Bench…

What made you choose law as a profession?

When I was in secondary in the 1960s, I wanted to study engineering. But later on, after I left school, I saw an advertisement for a legal course and I applied for it. It was a time when there were virtually no lawyers in the North. I was in the third batch of northern lawyers to be trained. That was how I came to be interested in and studied the law. When I attended the course in Zaria, it was in August 1961 and it went through 1962. We had to go to London for the second part of the course. I finished my studies there. I then returned to attend the Nigerian Law School, where I eventually qualified to practice in Nigeria. I qualified as a lawyer in England on January 4, 1963 and later on, I attended the Nigerian Law School. I finished in 1965, I think. I am not quite sure of the date. Every year at that time, they used to take about 12 candidates from the northern states to qualify as lawyers. In the year I was selected, I was the only one from Bauchi. There were three candidates from Sokoto. There was someone from Argungu, who later became a justice of the Supreme Court; there was Justice Kalgo from Kalgo and Usman Mohammed from Sokoto. And then there were other candidates from other northern states. There was another one from Borno, and another from Plateau. There were 12 of us in my set; I can’t remember all the names.

June 12 remains Democracy Day - Aregbesola, Says May 29 is an offshoot of June 12

Governor of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has described June 12, 1993 as the most suitable and proper day to mark democracy day in Nigeria.
Aregbesola, in his address marking the 23rd anniversary of June 12, said it was the date Nigerians freely expressed their choice on whom to be their leader and a day of unequivocal affirmation of the unity of the country by Nigerians across all divides.

He said Nigerians and lovers of democracy will remain committed to June 12 as a political watershed in the annals of the nation, saying May 29 only symbolises the day the military handed over the affairs of the country to a democratically elected government.

Rowdy Session As Confab Delegates Reject Honour For Abiola …say no to immunity clause

Echoes of the June 12, 1993 presidential election reverberated at the National Conference on Thursday when a motion seeking national recognition for the presumed winner of the poll, the late Chief Moshood Abiola, was moved at the confab.

The motion, which was moved by Orok Duke, saw the delegates divided along regional lines as those from the southern Nigeria favoured the motion while those from the North rejected it.

Those who were opposed to the motion, led by a representative of the civil society, Mallam Nasir Kura, were shouting “no!, no!”

GOK Ajayi, Chief M K O Abiola’s Lawyer, Dead

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Godwin Olusegun Kolawole Ajayi, one of Nigeria’s legal luminaries died on Friday. A family source confirmed his death today, Mr. Ajayi death came after a prolonged sickness that sidelined him from active legal practice in the last few years.

Once one of Nigeria’s most sought after lawyers, Mr. Ajayi represented Chief MKO Abiola, presumed winner of the June 12 1993 presidential election. But over the last decade, Mr. Ajayi made few public appearances due to his poor health, the family source said.

He was 83 years old. Members of Ajayi’s family and friends around the world are discussing a plan for a befitting funeral.