NNPP moves to seek cancellation of Anambra senatorial election

Anambra Central Senatorial District candidate of New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in the just-concluded presidential and National Assembly elections, Princess Helen Mbakwe, has hinted of possibility of the party challenging the outcome of February 25 senatorial election. She blamed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for her loss, as a result of, according to her, blurred printing of party logo.

Mbakwe, who lost her ticket to the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Senator Victor Umeh, alleged that the NNPP’s logo, which is “basket of fruits,” was blurred in its printed form, which purportedly confused many of her supporters to vote for either LP or Young Progressives Party (YPP).

Speaking at a post-election chat with journalists at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Awka, the state capital, yesterday, the NNPP candidate observed that the party’s logo was “practically non-existent on the ballot papers.”

Mbakwe mooted the idea of seeking redress in court of law to remedy the seeming lapse, even as she called on her supporters to remain calm.

She said: “I’m talking with my lawyers as I’ll be moving for cancellation of the senatorial election. I was completely left out of the voting processes after having campaigned vigorously.

“I ask our people and supporters of NNPP, as well as Nigerians to be calm, while leaders of our party chart a course for us as regards errors perpetrated by INEC against our party.

“Let me, in the strongest terms, condemn poor printing of my party’s logo on the ballot papers by INEC, thereby, frustrating my ambition and bright chances I had to contribute to a better Nigeria.

“We know the details of the logo of NNPP, which is “basket of fruits” and the party’s name, NNPP; but INEC presented nothing that looked like basket of fruits nor did it present the acronym, ‘NNPP,’ on the ballot paper.”