Ahead of tomorrow’s polls, members of the Labour Party (LP) in Ondo have raised alarm over the omission of the party’s logo on the ballot deployed to the state.
The discovery comes less than 12 hours before the presidential and national assembly elections holding nationwide.
Electorates in the state would be trooping out on Saturday, February 25, to exercise their franchise in the general elections.
Abiodun Agbaje, Ondo State Secretary of the LP, who spoke to reporters in Akure, said the party discovered that its name and logo were missing on the ballot papers sent to Ondo for the National Assembly election.
Mr Agbaje specifically lamented that the LP logo was missing for the House of Representatives as well as the Senatorial candidates in the state.
“The omission is unacceptable and also a wicked way of disenfranchising Ondo electorates who are planning to vote for the Labour Party in the state in tomorrow’s poll,” he said.
According to him, the omission was discovered during an inspection of the election materials sent to the Senatorial districts of Ondo
He listed the areas to include; Ondo central senatorial district, Akoko North West/North East, Akoko Southwest/SouthEast, Akure North/South, Okitipupa/Irele, Ilaje/Ese-Odo, and Ondo East/West.
Stephen Adeyeri, a candidate of the LP for the House of Representatives in Ondo, who was affected by the omission, described the act as deliberate.
“This is unacceptable and we believe INEC can rectify this in order not to disenfranchise our supporters from exercising their civic rights which is unacceptable,” Mr Adeyeri said.
He later urged that the election in the affected areas should be postponed by the electoral body until the electoral body rectifies the anomaly.
“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 the INEC to do the needful, to either allow us to participate in the election or postpone the election,” he said
Mr Adeyeri added that supporters and members of the LP would be disturbed if they get to the polling booth by Saturday and found out that the LP logo was missing from the ballot paper.
Peoples Gazette could not immediately reach Oyetola Oyelami, the acting Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Ondo for comment.
However, a source at the INEC office, who spoke to The Gazette in a phone chat, said that the electoral body was worried about the development.
“Honestly, we are also confused and all the materials have been deployed to the 18 LGAs for tomorrow’s election,” the source who does not want her name published told our reporter.
