Frank Kokori, June 12 1993 presidential election agitator is dead
The former General Secretary of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, and June 12, 1993 Presidential election agitator, Frank Kokori has been reported dead on Thursday December 7, 2023 at the age of 80 years following a prolonged kidney-related ailment.
Penpushing reports that one of his personal assistants Ovumedia Tobore said the Doctors confirmed his demise which occurred at about 6.640am, explaining that his (Kokori’s) health relapsed on Monday and he was placed on life support.
The deceased who served as the Chairman of the Board of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund played a pivotal role in the protests against the annulment of Nigeria’s Presidential election on June 12, 1993, won by late Moshood Abiola.
Penpushing further reports that Abiola was later arrested on charges of treason by the military, and the election annulled which sparked widespread protests and strikes, with workers’ unions, including the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers(NUPENG) which Kokori was the General Secretary.
The union thereafter launched a nationwide strike in 1994 to demand Abiola’s release and inauguration, while in August of the same year, Kokori was arrested and held without charges under the Sani Abacha military government, enduring solitary confinement in Bama Prison.
Penpushing also reports Kokori was subsequently release in 1998 when General Abdulsalam Abubakar succeeded the late military dictator Sanni Abacha and ordered the release of Kokori and other political activists and journalists.
The late former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela and Pope Saint John Paul II it is recalled declared him(Kokori) a Prisoner of Conscience in 1997, a status endorsed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Amnesty International (AI) from August 1994 to June 1998.
Penpushing reports that the Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwor, had visited him on his sick bed in November, and that time Kokori had lamented how he felt neglected by National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) while on admission at the hospital.
The Governor, however promised that the state government would do all in its power to assist him (Kokori), explaining that this was in contrary to insinuations that in some quarters that they belong to different political family
“I know people will think that because he is an APC chieftain I won’t be here, Deltans voted for me as Governor. It is not a party matter now because we have finished the election and all of us are one. Whether he is APC or not, I’m the governor for all Deltans. So, I’m here as the Governor for all, not for any political party’, Oborevwor was quoted saying
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