Accord has disowned Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, a former chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as its presidential candidate for the 2027 elections.
On May 26, Olawepo-Hashim announced his intention to run for president on Accord’s platform.
On Monday, reports swirled that Olawepo-Hashim won the party’s presidential primary election held across the country.
He was said to have polled a total of 423,902 votes as a sole contestant.
But in a statement issued on Wednesday, Maxwell Mgbudem, Accord national chairman, said the party did not conduct a presidential primary, adding that reports portraying Olawepo-Hashim as its standard-bearer for the 2027 elections were false.
He said the party’s presidential primary was cancelled because no aspirant purchased expression of interest and nomination forms for the office of president before the deadline.
“The purported presidential primary where he emerged as the ‘presidential candidate of Accord’ as widely reported in the national media was not conducted by our great party and has no effect whatsoever,” the statement reads.
“It was a fanfare by his supporters, which should not be misconstrued as the party’s presidential primary.”
Mgbudem said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was duly informed that the party didn’t conduct a presidential primary to nominate a candidate for the upcoming general election.
He said Olawepo-Hashim wrote to the party on May 26, expressing interest in contesting the presidency after the approved timeline for the nomination process had expired, adding that the application was not processed.
“The party also turned down Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim’s request to be declared the party’s presidential candidate on the basis that no other aspirant presented himself for nomination, as eligibility to participate in the nomination process was predicated upon full compliance with the requirements contained in Accord’s guidelines, including collection of expression of interest/nomination forms, filling and timely submission of the forms on or before the scheduled screening date and participation in the approved timeframe,” Mgbudem said.
Mgbudem said the absence of other aspirants cannot confer “automatic entitlement” on Olawepo-Hashim.
The party chairman said Olawepo-Hashim later paid N10 million and N40 million into Accord’s bank account for the expression of interest and nomination forms, respectively, after the period for the purchase of forms and the screening of aspirants had elapsed.
Mgbudem said the party instructed its bank to reverse the payments to the originating financial institution.
