BY: News Peddlers
.jpeg) |
| Labour Party (LP) |
Members of the Labour Party (LP) in Ondo have expressed concern about the absence of the party's logo on the ballots distributed to the state ahead of tomorrow's elections.
The discovery comes less than 12 hours before the presidential and national assembly elections, which are being held across the country.
On Saturday, February 25, voters in the state will go to the polls to exercise their right to vote in the general election.
The LP's Ondo State Secretary, Abiodun Agbaje, told reporters in Akure that the party discovered that its name and logo were missing from the ballot papers sent to Ondo for the National Assembly election.
Mr Agbaje specifically lamented the absence of the LP logo for the state's House of Representatives and Senatorial candidates.
"The omission is unacceptable, and it is also a wicked way of disenfranchising Ondo electorates who intend to vote for the Labour Party in the state in tomorrow's election," he said.
The omission, he claims, was discovered during an inspection of election materials sent to Ondo senatorial districts.
Ondo central senatorial district, Akoko North West/North East, Akoko Southwest/Southeast, Akure North/South, Okitipupa/Irele, Ilaje/Ese-Odo, and Ondo East/West are among the areas he mentioned.
Stephen Adeyeri, an LP candidate for the House of Representatives in Ondo who was affected by the omission, described the omission as intentional.
"This is unacceptable, and we believe INEC can correct it so that our supporters are not disenfranchised from exercising their civic rights, which is unacceptable," Mr Adeyeri said.
He later requested that the electoral body postpone the election in the affected areas until the anomaly was corrected.
"We are surprised when our representatives went to the INEC office today for the sorting of the electoral materials and discovered that the logo of our party was consciously missing on the ballot paper.
"We are urging INEC to do the right thing and either allow us to participate in the election or postpone it," he said.
Mr Adeyeri went on to say that supporters and members of the LP would be upset if they arrived at the polling booth by Saturday and discovered that the LP logo was missing from the ballot paper.
Peoples Gazette was unable to reach Oyetola Oyelami, the acting Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Ondo, for comment immediately.
However, a source at the INEC office told The Gazette over the phone that the electoral body was concerned about the development.
"To be honest, we are also confused, and all of the materials have been deployed to the 18 LGAs for tomorrow's election," said a source who did not want her name published.