The House of Representatives candidate of the Labour Party for Lokoja/Kogi federal constituency, Zacchaeus Jonathan, has called for outright cancellation of Saturday election as the logo of his party was unlawfully omitted on the ballot papers.
Addressing a press conference in Lokoja on Tuesday, the Director General of DonZack Campaign Organisation, Pastor Henry Babagbemi, said Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) erred in law by not featuring the logo of Labour Party for the House of Representatives election for Lokoja/Kogi federal constituency.
He disclosed that Labour Party’s candidate as a grassroots politician was poised to win the election but regretted that actions of INEC has robbed his principal the opportunity of winning the election.
He prayed INEC to declare his principal the winner or reschedule the election to give room for his supporters to exercise their franchise in his favour.
He described the declaration of Danladi Suleiman Aguye of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the election as biased, fraudulent and unacceptable to the party.
He added that the Saturday election could not meet the basic tenets or guidelines of the Electoral Act which stipulates that all parties that presented candidates for an election must have their party logo on the ballot papers.
“Regrettably, the LP logo was missing. This has robbed the electorate an opportunity to vote for candidate of their choice,” he said.
According to Babagbemi, the candidate of Labour Party was tipped to emerge winner as he remains the people’s choice among the contenders.
He insisted that the unlawful exclusion of the Labour Party candidate from the ballot was deliberate to subvert the popular will of the people and to impose an unpopular candidate on the people.
He decried the late arrival of results from Ward B and Oworo ward in Lokoja Local Government Area, adding that it was unbelievable that it took almost 24 hours for results to come in, an action that could significantly compromise the election.
”Our candidate, Surveyor Zacchaeus Jonathan, has fought many political battles to secure his candidacy to run for the House of Representatives. His battle started from the omission of his name, loss of documents in INEC office, his Primary Election result forwarded to INEC headquarters was misplaced on three occasions.
”He was able to secure CTC which he used to pursue legal journey which ended with a valid court order from a Federal High Court in Abuja ordering INEC to include him on the ballot as a legally recognized candidate for the Labour Party. The letter and judgement were properly served on INE more than three weeks before the elections.
“Sequel to the above reasons, we the campaign Organisation for Zaccheaus Jonathan in agreement with his teeming supporters in Kogi state, Kogi-Kotonkarfe and Lokoja LGAs, 21 wards and 378 polling units rejects the result and are praying INEC to consider options of announcing our candidate as the winner of the election of25th February, 2023, Lokoja/Kogi federal constituency or an outright cancellation of the results and to conduct fresh election without delay for fairness and justice,” he demanded.
