Presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) Mr. AbdulLateef Kola Abiola, has revealed how both the military governments and the succeeding civilian administrations tried to kill the businesses of his late father and winner of the June 12 election, Chief Moshood Kasimawo Abiola.
Mr. Abiola, while speaking at an online interview session put together by the Alvin Reports on Sunday, disclosed that those condemning him that he cannot hold together the vast businesses of his late father are unaware of the assaults on those businesses by the military government and other administrations that followed.
Abiola said it was not until after the exit of the President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration that he got some relief over the dying family businesses.
The presidential aspirant has come under attacks for declaring to rule Nigeria saying that he failed to ensure the survival of the businesses of his late father.
Mr. Abiola’s father, the late MKO, died in mysterious circumstances after long period of incarceration by the military regime of the late General Sanni Abacha.
A month after Abacha’s death, while hopes were high that Abiola would regain his freedom, Abiola died in detention leading to a prolonged national crisis.
The younger Abiola said on Sunday that if those accusing him of failing to ensure the survival of the family businesses know what he went through, they would have a better assessment of his person and his capacities.
He said it was so bad that anything that had link with Abiola suffered untold attacks.
“If you know Kakanfo Inn, in Ibadan, it was shut down by the Abacha administration. The owner of the hotel had nothing to do with June 12 or even MKO. But because the hotel is named Kakanfo Inn, and you realize that my father was the Aare Ona Kakanfo, they simply just thought the hotel belonged to my father and they shut it down. It was that bad!” Abiola lamented.
Saying that he ran the campaigns of his father for the Hope ’93 project, Mr. Abiola said he had always been a man of his own mind even before the death of MKO.
Describing as totally parlous the state of affairs in the country, Kola Abiola called on Nigerians to take advantage of the PRP as a party to seek alternatives to the alleged mess by the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressive Congress.
He also disclosed that there are many details of what transpired before, during and after the June 12 saga that are not yet time for revelations.
“But I will some day talk about them,” he said. He said many of the people who pretended to be pro-June 12 were indeed working against the interest of his father.
He also expressed worry over the decision by some Nigerians to question the right of any of the Abiola family to seek elective posts.
Abiola said many Nigerians in position of authority today rose to power latching on the name of his father.
“Why is it that it is whenever any of his children come out for anything that some Nigerians say we have nothing other than capitalizing on the name of our father? he demanded.
He also gave hints on plans to resuscitate some of the businesses of his father including the Concord newspaper.