Ughelli –  An activist in the struggle against the annulment of the June 12 election result, Chief Frank Kokori, says the annulment is the most unfortunate aspect of Nigerian history.

Kokori made the remark at the 18th anniversary of the June 12 annulment, organised by the Great Ogboru Campaign Organisation’s Youth Affairs Directorate on Tuesday in Ughelli, Delta.

The activist, in a paper he delivered at the event, also described the June 12 struggle as the entrenchment of democratic values in the country.

Kokori, a former Secretary-General of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), decried the annulment and said it was the only election that really represented the rule of the people.

“The way it was, the election could have promoted true leadership in our country,’’ he said.

Kokori remarked that because the election depicted the true democratic value, the struggle continued to represent freedom from all forms of electoral malpractices.

He said that that was why he personally made sacrifices by being against the military oppressors.

“I suffered bodily torture, imprisonment, verbal assaults and all forms of indignity and intimidation, but I refused to give up the struggle,” the activist added.

He said he fought against the military because he preferred to suffer for the re-validation of the late Chief Moshood Abiola’s mandate.

Kokori said that the overall aim was to achieve the enthronement of true democracy in the country and regretted that anti-democratic persons had become the beneficiaries of the struggle.

Speaking also at the event, the 2011 governorship candidate of the Democratic Peoples’ Party (DPP) in Delta, Chief Great Ogboru, described the late Abiola as a true hero of Nigeria’s nascent democracy.

He commended the youths for organising the forum and urged them to continue to stand against electoral fraud in a non-violent manner.

“I am confident that the 2011 election tribunal will restore my success in the April 2011 election back to me, and I believe we should always agitate against electoral fraud in a non-violent manner,’’ Ogboru said.

Chairman of the Youth Directorate of the Ogboru Campaign Organisation, Comrade Rex Anighoro, remarked that the group upheld June 12 as Democracy Day and not the May 29 declared by government.

“The reason is that June 12 is the symbol of freedom and democracy,’’ he said.(NAN)