Nigeria’s former military president, Ibrahim Babangida (IBB), says he regrets the annulment of the 12 June 12 1993 presidential election, 25 years after the event.

Mr Babangida stated this in his speech at the launch of his autobiography – “A Journey in Service”, in Abuja on Thursday.

The retired army general took responsibility for cancelling the exercise in which the late Moshood Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) defeated the late Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention (NRC).

Mr Babangida’s junta announced the annulment of the poll days after stopping the electoral commission’s final collation of the results.

The annulment threw Nigeria into a political impasse, forcing Mr Babangida to hand over to his hand-picked interim national government eight weeks later on 26 August.

However, Sani Abacha, Mr Babangida’s military ally whom he appointed the defence secretary of the interim government, staged a coup of his own and returned Nigeria to a full-blown military dictatorship on 17 November 1993.

The former military president had always prevaricated on the annulment, often claiming he did it in the best interest of Nigeria.

However, on Thursday, he formally expressed regret for his actions.

“I regret June 12. I accept full responsibility for the decisions taken and June 12 happened under my watch. Mistakes, missteps happened in quick successions,” he said.

More details later…