By Nsan Ndoma-Neji, Calabar
The Cross River State chapter of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, has called on the Independent Natıonal Electoral Commission, INEC, to comply with the judgment of the Appeal Court, for tbe rerun of the March 18 gubernatorial election in the state.
The party had approached the Federal High Court over the non-inclusive of its logo on the ballot for the election by the INEC.
The gubernatorial candidate of the NNPP, Amb. Wilfred Bonse, made the call during a media chat with journalists at the Ernest Etim Bassey Press Centre, Calabar on Tuesday, where the leadership of NNPP in the state met with journalists to express their displeasure over the issue.
The party said, “We are challenging INEC’s non-compliance with the judgement of the Appeal Court. Our prayer is for a rerun to be conducted; we are seeking for the electoral umpire to do the right thing, it is not the first time it will happen.”
The NNPP candidate, who spoke with journalists alongside other party stakeholders averred that the party holds no grudge against state government or any political party in the state.
Bonse said that before the conduct of the March 2023 governorship polls, the NNPP noticed that the first and second published list of governorship and House of Assembly elections candidates by the INEC excluded NNPP logo, stressing that the party quickly challenged the matter in the Federal High Court, asking that the party’s logo be enlisted in the INEC list and they got judgement.
He said, “Rather than upload our names and party logo on the list, INEC appealed the judgement at the appellate court, but thankfully, we won at the Appeal Court.
“After we won at the appellate court, we thought that was all that was required, especially as INEC did not proceed to the Supreme Court; we assumed that INEC had accepted the judgement.
- “But when we got to the election proper, we discovered that our logo was still not uploaded, that was why we approached the tribunal to seek redress for the perceived injustice done to our party.”
