Solicitor to the Oyo State chapter of New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP), Olayinka Ogunmodimu, has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to cancel the presidential and National Assembly elections held on Saturday February 25, 2023 in Oyo, over allegations that the commission, wilfully omitted the party’s name and used the wrong logo for the party on the ballots papers.
The party therefore demanded that a new election be conducted as soon as possible, wherein its logo will be correctly and legibly placed on the ballot papers.
The party in a letter dated March 1 2023 and addressed to INEC through its solicitor, also accused the commission of the use of an illegible and wrong logo for the new Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), wilful and deliberate omission of the party’s name on the ballot papers during the elections.
The party claimed that the deliberate action carried out by INEC caused great damage to it in the state, as many party members and supporters, who went out en masse on Saturday to vote for NNPP were prevented and disenfranchised from casting their votes for their beloved political party.
The Oyo chapter of NNPP therefore urged INEC to immediately announce the cancellation of February 25, 2023, Presidential and National Assembly elections in the state, and demanded that a new election be conducted as soon as possible.
The letter reads: ” We are solicitors to the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) (hereinafter referred to as Our Client) and on whose instruction we write. Our client ably informed us of the refusal of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to use the correct and legible logo of the NNPP and also the omission of the party’s name on the ballot papers of February 25, 2023, Presidential and National Assembly elections in Oyo State.
” Our client’s Polling Unit agents at the elections were shocked to get to their various Polling Units to discover that INEC decided to make use of the most blurred image to represent the logo of the NNPP. This blurred image as our client informed us, did not also include the name of the party.
“Our client further informed us that the key representation of the NNPP is ‘Basket of Fruits’, but on the INEC ballot paper, neither the basket nor the fruits could be seen thus, making it difficult for majority of the NNPP supporters to identify the ballot paper, especially because there was also no name of the party on it. This, our client stated, not only confused the party supporters but also deliberately disenfranchised them.
