Some Hausas escaped death in the hands of rioters in the wake of the crisis that erupted after the cancellation of the June 12, 1993 presidential election due to the intervention of their Yoruba hosts.
The election, which results were annulled by the military government of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, was presumed to have been won by the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Chief M.K.O. Abiola, a Yoruba man from the South-West.
Read Also: ‘My father, his friend were killed, burnt in Ibadan because of June 12’
Cancellation of the poll triggered riots in parts of the South-West where the Hausas were targeted, with many killed and their property destroyed.
President Muhammadu Buhari, in 2018, declared June 12 as Nigeria’s Democracy Day.
The chairman of Hausa Association in Kakawa, Lagos Island, Alhaji Ghali Suleman Kabiru, witnessed the violence firsthand as it spread in Lagos 28 years ago.
The community leader recalled that roads were blocked across the commercial city by rioters looking for people of northern extraction.
He said their friend and business associate, called Sabi’u, was so unlucky to run into one of the checkpoints.
“Their vehicle was stopped coming from Ibadan and he was brutally attacked and left unconscious. God brought a Yoruba man who took him to a private hospital where he spent about a week before he regained consciousness. When he came back to his senses, the man who saved him asked him to notify his relations of his whereabouts which he did,” Ghali recalled.
“Some northerners were trailed to their homes and assaulted while others were attacked in the streets for the only reason that, according to them, Abiola was denied victory in the election he won.
“They forgot that Northerners overwhelmingly voted for Abiola and should not have been targeted for attacks because of the military government’s action.
“That is why I personally believe that Buhari made a no small mistake by declaring June 12 to be Democracy Day instead of retaining May 29 because of the lives that were lost. It is for that reason that northerners don’t celebrate or join in activities marking June 12 because of the pains of losing their brothers.
“It is a day of sadness to us; some people lost their parents and others were mutilated on that day,” he said.
