The immediate younger brother of the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola, is dead.

Alhaji Mubashiru Abiola, who was fondly referred to as “Uncle Bashy”, died Friday evening at the age of 73 after a brief illness.

His remains were, however, interred at exactly 4pm yesterday beside his two late wives within the Abiola family compound located at Gaa Sabo in the Lafenwa area of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, according to Islamic rites.

Until his death, Alhaji Mubashiru had remained the rallying point for the entire Abiola family since the death of his elder brother and undeclared winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election annulled by the Gen. Ibrahim Babangida-led military junta, M.K.O. Abiola, on July 7, 1998.

When the news of the death of Alhaji Mubashiru was broken, a younger brother of the deceased, Engineer Rahmon Abiola, confirmed that Uncle Bashy was born on Sunday, February 14, 1942 and that his illness and eventual death were as a result of old age.

Meanwhile, one of the wives of the late M.K.O. Abiola and publisher of the resting Concord Newspapers, Dr. Doyin, Abiola, M.K.O’s eldest daughter who is also the current executive director, Operations of the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Mrs. Lola Abiola-Edewor, who attended the interment, were devastated by the death of Alhaji Mubashiru as they could not speak with the press. However, two sons of the Abiola family, Lekan and Jamiu, who were also present during the Interment, stated that the vacuum created by the death of Alhaji Mubashiru in the Abiola family would be difficult to fill by anyone else.

Lekan Abiola said, “I don’t think we have anybody else in the family that can take his position at this point in time. It is going to take a while before we can figure out any other person who has the charisma to carry on from where he stopped”.