The gubernatorial candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) in Ogun State in the last election, Ambassador Olufemi Ajadi Oguntoyinbo, has commended the ruling of the elections petition tribunal for granting the party’s request to inspect all Bi-modal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines and other sensitive materials used for the elections over the omission of the party’s name on the ballot paper.
Sitting in Isabo, Abeokuta, the tribunal granted all the parties’ prayers in the motion ex parte filed.
It is recalled that Governor Dapo Abiodun of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared the winner of the March 18 gubernatorial election.
But the NNPP went to court to challenge the omission of its name on the ballot paper in the state, noting that this act disenfranchised its members, loyalists, supporters and the masses from voting for the party during the gubernatorial and state assembly elections.
An eight-paragraph affidavit, deposed to by the state chairman of the party, Olaposi Oginni, supported the motion ex parte.
The NNPP alleged that INEC did not include the party’s name on the governorship ballot papers as prescribed by the Electoral Act. It urged the tribunal to allow it to make photocopies, scan, and record all sensitive materials used by INEC in the March 18 governorship election ahead of its petition.
The party added that it would seek to nullify the governorship election in the state because its name was omitted from the ballot papers.
While agreeing with the party on its prayers, the tribunal’s chairman, Justice Argum Ashom, said, “In that effect, the reliefs are granted as prayed.”
In a personal statement he signed, Oguntoyinbo lauded the tribunal for granting the party’s prayers regarding the omission of its name on the ballot paper during the state’s gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections on March 18.
He disclosed that the party had written a letter to INEC to ensure its name was included on the ballot. Still, in its wisdom, the electoral body decided to rob the party of victory by refusing to correct the error, hence the need to challenge it constitutionally by going to the tribunal.
He maintained that omitting the party’s name on the ballot paper disenfranchised voters in voting for the party, stating that it was a ploy to rob him and the party of victory in the just-conducted gubernatorial and state assembly elections.
Oguntoyinbo then called for the cancellation of the March 18 election and the conduct of another election so that the party’s name would be inscribed appropriately on the ballot paper.
