Senate President, David Mark has said he could not have played any role in the events that led to the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election when he was prematurely retired from the Army because of his support for restoration of democracy in Nigeria.

In a forthcoming book entitled, The Shepherd Cometh, edited by former editor of New Nigeria Newspapers, Mallam Yakubu Aliyu, Mark denied any involvement in the annulment of the election won by the late Chief MKO Abiola.
Mark, who was unanimously re-elected Senate president for another four years on Monday said he was not aware of any grand design to annul the said election: “I was certainly not a party to it nor was I aware of it.”

He said he was retired from the military because he insisted that democracy must be restored in the country.
Rubbishing recurring allegations that he was party to the events that led to the controversial annulment of the election rated most free, fair and credible in the history of the country, Mark dismissed such allegation as wild, untrue and must be discarded.

“Although, I was a brigadier general, I was not part of the administration at that time. I was not a member of the National Defence Security Council, NDSC, or the executive council. I had been assigned as director of Strategic Studies at the National War College and, in fact, was lecturing on the role of military in a democratic society,” he said.
Speaking about the book yesterday, the editor said the publication chronicled the objective political events between 1992 and 1999, putting Senator David Mark in perspective.
According to him, the book touched on major activities of Senator Mark, which were either misinterpreted or misrepresented by the public in the course of serving his fatherland.

Foreward to the book was written by Mark’s bosom friend and former military administrator of former Bendel State, Brigadier General Tunde Ogbeha, himself a former senator, while the preface was written by the former chairman, Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA, Mr. Abubakar Gimba.
Describing Mark as democracy personified, Aliyu noted that the Senate president was retired alongside other senior officers by former head of state, General Sani Abacha, because they met with him and insisted military should support the Head of the Interim National Government, ING, Chief Ernest Shonekan to conduct the presidential election successfully as was in the transition programme.

“The Abacha palace coup, which toppled the ING was a betrayal of hope and aspirations for all Nigerians, a betrayal of democracy. It was a coup against the ING but as it turned out it was coup against democracy, supported and nourished by politicians who behave like chameleons,” he said in the book.
He said parts of efforts by Mark to restore democracy in the country were the interview he granted the Newswatch Magazine and published in the edition of April 11, 1994, which revealed to the world the intention of Abacha’s regime to stay in power for a minimum period of five years and maximum of eight years.

In a book titled: THE TALE OF JUNE 12:THE BETRAYAL OF THE DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS OF NIGERIANS written in 2000 by Prof. Omo Omoruyi who was a political adviser to IBB as well as the brain behind the creation by executive fiat of the two party system i.e NRC and SDP wrote among other things that David Mark said he was going to shoot MKO personally if he was sworn in.

His denial is comming rather too late.