The 2023 vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Datti Baba-Ahmed, has accused the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu of rigging the 2023 election and bringing suffering upon Nigerians.

Yakubu’s tenure ends this November after serving his two terms of 10 years.

However, Baba-Ahmed said Nigeria does not need an election-rigger to succeed Mahmood Yakubu, whom he accused to rigging the presidential election.

He stated this on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Friday night.

Baba-Ahmed blamed Yakubu for some of the irregularities that marred the 2023 presidential election President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), accusing INEC of not playing by its own rules and even the constitution.

He said, “All I want is a credible person, not somebody who will clearly rig what the constitution provides: 25% in at least two-thirds of the states of the federation and the FCT, and go ahead to breach the constitution and put Nigeria into what Nigeria is today. Just one individual. Throughout human history, individuals make or break societies.”

Baba-Ahmed said electoral recruitment remained the bane of Nigeria’s democracy.

He listed the consequences of electoral fraud thusly: “Our leadership recruitment is the bane of our problems. Electoral fraud is the single most important fact to be addressed in our lives as a nation, even beyond insecurity. Insecurity is derived from electoral fraud. The Nigerian election gave birth to the kind of insecurity we have today.

“Corruption is aggravated by electoral fraud. The destruction of our youths, of the system, is aggravated by electoral fraud.”

Baba-Ahmed hinted that he planned to contest the 2027 presidential election with Peter Obi, but said it may not be on the platform of the coalition party, African Democratic Congress (ADC), a party he dismissed as deceiving Nigerians because of its make-up.

“They are deceiving us”, he said.

On running with Peter Obi, he said: “I’m in the Labour Party. I’m a Peter Obi man. I still want Peter Obi to come back to the Labour Party and contest the 2027 election.”