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ODIEC Chairman, Dr Joseph Aremo
By MUFTAU OGUNYEMI
The Ondo State Independent Electoral Commission (ODIEC) has cancelled the Chairmanship election in Ondo West Local Government Area.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that this was due to the erroneous use of the old logo of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) on the ballot paper.
Dr Joseph Aremo, Chairman of the Commission, disclosed this at a news conference on Saturday night in Akure, saying the election in the council area had been rescheduled for Sunday.
Aremo explained that the attention of the commission was drawn to the issue of the logo, thus would re-conduct the chairmanship election in the LG between 11:00a.m. and 4:00p.m. on Sunday.
He said that the commission had resolved to conduct a free, fair and transparent local government election in the state, hence the decision to cancel the chairmanship poll in the LGA.
“We observed that the logo of New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) on the ballot paper was indeed an old logo of the party.
“And the commission has met and we have taken a decision that we should provide a fair and better platform that will throw up an equal opportunity to all participating political parties in the election.
“For the Chairmanship position where we have NNPP participating in Ondo West LG, the commission has taken a position that the election is hereby cancelled or void.
“And that the commission tomorrow, which is Jan. 19, will have election re-conducted into office of Chairmanship position for Ondo West LG between hours of 11:00a.m. and 4:00p.m.
“Ordinarily, we expected the party to have drawn our attention to it, but nevertheless the commission has taken a decision that the entire chairmanship election in Ondo West is hereby void,” the ODIEC chairman said.
According to Aremo, the new logo of the party would be appearing on the ballot paper for the election scheduled to hold on Sunday.
“Everything would be ready before 11:00a.m. tomorrow morning,” he said.
The chairman said that apart from the incident pertaining to the chairmanship election in Ondo West, there were no other complaints from other LGAs concerning the elections. (NAN)
