A former Minister of Transport, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, has cautioned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) against manipulating the rerun elections in states where last Saturday’s governorship elections were declared inconclusive.

Babatope particularly warned the electoral body against manipulating the election in Kano state which he described as a ‘political tinderbox’.

INEC had Monday night declared the governorship election held in Kano State inconclusive.

The election was declared inconclusive by the State Returning Officer, Prof B. B. Shehu, the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University, Birnin Kebbi.

Abba Kabir Yusuf, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate had more votes than the incumbent state governor Dr Abdullahi Ganduje with a slim margin of 26,655 votes. Yusuf polled 1,014,474 votes, while Ganduje got 987,810.

With 2,211,520 accredited voters, 172 polling units were cancelled making a total of 100,873 votes cancelled and 49,761 rejected votes.

Speaking in a chat with INDEPENDENT, Babatope said rigging election in Kano may be dangerous for Nigeria’s peace and stability, adding that any negative occurrence here will also affect Africa and the rest of the world.

He said: “I pray that INEC does not rig the rerun elections, especially in Kano state. If they do, they will be endangering the peace, unity and cohesion of Nigeria.

“There are many issues intertwined in the Kano election that requires caution. From all said and done, Nigeria is still our country and definitely, a United Nigeria is good for Nigerians, Africa and the world.

“Kano is a political tinderbox and if they tamper with it, then they would have murdered peace in Nigeria and that will be very dangerous,” he said.