The Nigerian Presidency has called on the family of the late Moshood Kashimawo Abiola (MKO Abiola) to formally submit a claim if they believe there are outstanding financial issues with the government. This plea comes amidst renewed demands for details regarding a reported \u20a645 billion debt allegedly owed to the Abiola family by the Federal Government.<\/p>\n
The family\u2019s renewed push for compensation follows recent appeals made by Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido. During the launch of his memoir,\u00a0\u201cBeing True to Myself,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0in Abuja in May 2025, Lamido reiterated a long-standing dispute over funds owed to Abiola\u2019s heirs. He asserted that Abiola\u2019s company, International Telephone & Telegraph, executed major communication contracts for Nigeria’s military government in the 1970s but was never fully remunerated.<\/p>\n Lamido emphasised the importance of addressing this unresolved financial matter as part of national healing and justice. However, the response from the Presidency was clear: the Abiola family should directly file their claims if they possess sufficient evidence, rather than relying on public statements by political figures.<\/p>\n A senior Presidential official, speaking anonymously to Punch, commented, \u201cThe children of MKO Abiola are still very much alive. The first son is alive. If there is any money owed, they should file a formal claim. It is not for Sule Lamido to be speaking on behalf of the family.\u201d<\/p>\n The official further questioned why past administrations under Presidents Obasanjo and Buhari, each in office for eight years, did not settle the debt, suggesting that the current administration does not see it as their immediate concern.<\/p>\n On another note, Hafsat Abiola, a family member and daughter of the late MKO Abiola, expressed gratitude to the Federal Government. She praised President Bola Tinubu for posthumously honouring her mother, conferring the Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR) award on Kudirat Abiola, her mother and a prominent democracy advocate.<\/p>\n \u201cI cannot find words sufficient to express my gratitude for President Tinubu\u2019s decision to honour my mother, Kudirat Abiola, posthumously. She was driven by love and a deep sense of duty to defend her husband\u2019s mandate and work tirelessly for Nigeria\u2019s democracy. I am certain she would have been overwhelmed with joy to receive this recognition,\u201d Hafsat said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Nigerian Presidency has called on the family of the late Moshood Kashimawo Abiola (MKO Abiola) to formally submit a claim if they believe there are outstanding financial issues with the government. This plea...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7000"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7002,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7000\/revisions\/7002"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}