By PETER ANOSIKE

A chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Nelson Ahamefula Akuma, has said that whoever attempts to rig the 2027 general elections would end up in jail in the United States.

However, he said that he is very optimistic that the fear of what happened to the immediate past president of Venezuela, Nicholas Maduro, would lead to a more credible elections in Nigeria.

Akuma said that Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is aware that the international community, especially United States is monitoring developments in Nigeria and as such would not allow what happened in 2023 general election to happen again in 2027.

He said that the fear of Donald Trump would compel the electoral body to do the right thing.

According to him, in 2024, Nicholas Maduro conducted a fraudulent election and today he is paying for it.

Speaking further, he said that the same would be the lot for whoever would try to do so in Nigeria, since Donald Trump would not tolerate electoral fraud.

According to him, people were saying that Donald Trump believes in ‘America First’ and would not care about the injustices in other countries.

However, he said that the military intervention in Nigeria has shown that Trump cares and he is also closely monitoring political development in the country.

“A saying has it that every day is for the thief but one day is for the owner of the house and that day is here. In July 2024, Venezuelans rejected Nicholas Maduro at the polls but he used the power of incumbency and declared himself the winner of the presidential election. He was asked to step down from office but he refused. Today, he is paying for it. So, it is no more business as usual for election riggers. In fact any attempt to rig the 2027 general elections would be met with international consequences. There is nothing again like sovereignty for evil people. You steal your peoples’ mandate and you pay for it. So, the season of election rigging, especially manipulation of election results has come to an end,” Akuma said.

He called on the members of the National Assembly to begin genuine electoral reform, adding that Nigeria with a population of over two hundred million is very important to the world and as such global actors would not continue to overlook attempts at undermining Nigeria’s democratic process.

He said that Nigeria has already been declared a country of particular concern by the United States, insisting that any attempt to undermine democracy would further isolate Nigeria internationally.

According to him, President Tinubu should focus on governance and credible reforms rather than political manoeuvring ahead of 2027,

To the Nigerian people, he expressed confidence that the 2027 elections would be different from the previous elections and appealed to them to go and get their permanent voters cards.