‘So Long As People Steal Elections, You Will Never Have Security’ – Datti Baba-Ahmed

Sunnex Egbu

10 hours ago

Labour Party (LP) 2023 Vice Presidential candidate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, has asserted that insecurity will continue in Nigeria until politicians stop manipulating elections.

Naijaonpoint reports that Baba-Ahmed stated this on Tuesday while responding to questions in an interview on ‘Politics Today’, a programme on Channels Television.

According to him, Nigerians can only have true leaders when they are genuinely elected.

When asked how to stop the cycle of killings in Nigeria, he said, “Only when you have the right leaders; you can only have the right leaders when you have them truly elected.

“So long as people steal elections, you will never have security. Most drastic is that when that group of people use the tools of insecurity that we have seen in 2015, and it worked, and they achieved what they wanted.

“And again they use, now, for example, the tools of religion, ethnicity, division within political parties and heavy use of money.”

Meanwhile, the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has denied allegations that it is involved in paying bandits and terrorists monthly allowances or sending food to them in the name of a non-kinetic battle against insurgency.

The denial was made on Tuesday by the Chief of Defence Operations, Major General Emeka Onumajuru, during an interview on Channels Television Sunrise Daily.

According to him, the Armed Forces of Nigeria do not support financial payment to bandits terrorising different states across the country, adding that experience has shown that such a method is not helpful.

Onumajuru, however, confirmed that the military has a Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) process, which supports ex-combatants in transitioning from armed groups to civilian life after they lay down their weapons and go through profiling in detail.

He clarified that the DDR process, which is anchored around Operation Safe Corridor in Gombe State and Zamfara State for the North-East and North-West regions, respectively, admits only those who are found not to be culpable in terrorism.