Akinwunmi Ambode, governor of Lagos State, on Sunday joined Oyo, Ekiti, Ogun and Osun States to declare Monday public holiday to mark the June 12 anniversary in the state.
A statement issued by Tunji Bello, secretary to the State Government, said the state remains committed to the ideals of the annulled 1993 Presidential election.
The governor said  the holiday was in honour of the ideals which June 12, 1993 Presidential election, being a day that the country experienced an election that was adjudged as the freest and fairest in Nigeria’s history.
According to him, 24 years after, the ideals of June 12  are still worth celebrating, describing the day as one of the most defining moments of the country’s political history which had positively shaped its democracy.
Ambode urged Nigerians  to go beyond the commemoration and strive to entrench a viable democracy. He added that this was a way to immortalise the late  winner of the June 12, 1993 Presidential election, Chief M.K.O Abiola through the practice of true federalism and conduct of credible and fair elections.
“June 12, 1993 is a day we must not forget in the annals of our democratic history. Our present democratic experience may still be far from the ideal, but we must all make concerted efforts to entrench fiscal federalism which is the only way to achieve true nationhood,” Ambode said, adding that part of the enduring lessons of June 12 election was that it imbued the patriotic and nationalistic zeal in all Nigerians,  to speak with one voice to make a political choice,  devoid of ethnic, racial or social sentiments.