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| Kudirat Abiola corner in Manhattan,USA. |
Corner of Second Avenue and 44th Street named Kudirat Abiola Corner.
I never knew Kudirat Abiola had a street named after her in USA.
The street was named after her in January 1998.
Over protests from the Nigerian Government, a street corner in Manhattan has been named in honor of a slain dissident.
A sign naming the corner of Second Avenue and 44th Street Kudirat Abiola Corner was unveiled Friday by Hafsat Abiola in recognition of her mother, who was
gunned down in Nigeria in June 1996.
The Nigerian Government and the Congress of Nigerians Abroad had protested the sign, arguing in court that it was an unconstitutional attempt by New York City to conduct foreign policy. Acting Justice William J. Leibovitz of the State Supreme Court ruled in December that the corner could be named in Mrs. Abiola's honor.
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| Mrs Kudirat Abiola. |
Mrs. Abiola was married to Chief Moshood Abiola, who was presumed to have won Nigeria's presidency in June 1993. Gen. Sani Abacha, the current ruler, seized the Government and charged Chief Abiola with treason. He remains in prison. Mrs. Abiola was shot in a roadside ambush in June 1996 by six gunmen who also killed her driver.
Nobel Prize-winner Wole Soyinka, former Mayor David Dinkins and former United States Ambassador to Nigeria Walter Carrington attended Friday's ceremony.
Hal Ian Wolsky, a lawyer for the Congress of Nigerians Abroad, had said the corner's renaming was ''designed solely to embarrass the Nigerian Government.''
source
Nigerian Blogs
source
Nigerian Blogs