By Soni Daniel, Regional Editor, North

MUSLIMS in the country, yesterday, warned the Federal Government not to cause a repeat of the June 12 1993 debacle by promptly releasing the Presidential and National Assembly elections conducted last Saturday.

The Muslims Rights Concern, an advocacy group, which works for Muslims in Nigeria in a statement made available to the media in Abuja, asked the Independent National Electoral Commission to take urgent steps to make the results available to Nigerians, who waited patiently to cast their votes last Saturday.

MURIC also called on the Federal Government and the Nigerian security agencies to fully respect INEC’s independence.

It warned that it was not in the interest of the nation and its people for the security agencies to be breathing down the neck or arm-twisting INEC in the course of the election.

In the statement which was signed by its Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, MURIC drew the attention of the Federal Government to the annulment of the June 12 election, which was won by the late MKO Abiola but which was criminally annulled by the government, thereby setting Nigeria on fire.

It said: “We call Federal Government’s attention to the June 12 debacle. The June 12, 1993 general election which was widely believed to have been won by Chief M. K. O. Abiola was the most peaceful, most free and most fair in the annals of Nigeria’s history. Yet the results were most criminally and callously annulled by the then military government.”