According to an interview with The Sun On Saturday, August 23, 2025, Former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Alhaja Sinatu Ojikutu, has shared a personal account of her interactions with late Chief MKO Abiola during his 1993 presidential campaign.
Ojikutu revealed that while many politicians at the time benefitted from Abiola’s generosity, she chose instead to speak frankly with him about the political realities surrounding his ambition.
According to her, she told Abiola bluntly: “I told him straight to his face. Egbon mi (My brother), I don’t see you on this seat. From everything I’m hearing, from the circles I’m moving in as deputy governor, from what they are saying behind you. They won’t allow you.”
She explained that although she warned him of resistance even from some of his close allies, Abiola dismissed her concerns, insisting that his friends were solidly behind him. “He said, forget it. They are for me. You will see, they are for me,” Ojikutu recounted.
The former deputy governor said events later proved her right. After the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election, Abiola acknowledged her honesty. “But eventually he was betrayed. After the election was annulled, he saw me and just grabbed me and hugged me,” she said, recalling the moment with emotion.
Ojikutu described herself as one of the very few who warned Abiola in advance, stressing that her intention was never to discourage him but to speak the truth as she saw it from her position in government at the time.
