Justice Dahiru Saleh, the judge, who announced the annulment of June 12, 1993, Presidential election, is dead.
He was aged 81.
His death was announced by one of his grandsons, Armayau Abubakar Liman.
He wrote, “My grandfather, Justice Muhammad Dahiru Saleh, Rtd, former CJ FCT (Matawalken Katagum) has passed on this (Thursday) afternoon. I solicit your prayers for Allah’s mercy on his soul.”
He passed on in his hometown, Azare, headquarters of Katagum Local Government Area of Bauchi State.
Meanwhile, reports said the late justice was buried at the Palace of the Emir of Katagum on Thursday in accordance with Islamic rites.
However, as a the time of filing this report, the Bauchi State Government was yet to issue any official statement regarding his death.
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Late Saleh was born on August 22, 1939, in Azare and attended Azare Primary School from 1948-1951, from where he proceeded to the Azare Senior Primary School from 1952-1955.
He then proceeded to Barewa College, Zaria in 1956-1969 after which he went to the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria from 1961-1962 and the Council of Legal Education, London (Middle Temple) in 192-1965.
He worked in several places and rose to become the Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja from 1984-2003 where he retired.
June 12, 1993 election was adjudged as the freest and fairest election in the country.
Moshood Abiola, the Presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), was leading his National Republican Convention (NRC) rival, Bashir Tofa, by a wide margin but the exercise was scuttled before the final announcement of results.
Abiola, among many other Nigerians lost his life in the struggle to reclaim his mandate.
