Olawepo withdraws from ANN Presidential primaries

Erswhike frontline presidential aspirant on the ticket of the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, on Friday announced his withdrawal from the party’s presidential primaries.

Olawepo-Hashim, in a letter addressed to the National Chairman of ANN in Abuja, said that he was withdrawing from the party on grounds of breach of party’s constitutional procedure.

He said that the primaries billed for Saturday, September 29 failed to comply with the party’s constitution. Olawepo-Hashim, hitherto the favoured aspirant to clinch the parties presidential candidacy slot, said that it is regrettable that the abnormalities he mentioned to the chairman at their Wednesday meetings have not been corrected, in what he alleged amounted to a disrespect for the constitution of the party.

In the letter dated September 28, the aspirant who has toured a substantial part of the country campaigning for delegates’ support noted, “The list of delegates has not been provided to me as a Presidential aspirant on the platform of the ANN. This is contrary to the constitution of the ANN and the Electoral Act. This is such a fundamental flaw as to render any exercise purporting to be presidential primaries to be nugatory.”

Easily regarded as the most cerebral of the former ANN presidential hopeful, Olawepo-Hashim said it is unfortunate that even on the eve of the so-called primaries, guidelines for the primaries, which ought to have been approved by the National Executive Committee (NEC) and issued at least seven days before the elections are made available.

He said: “The absence of guidelines to guide the conduct of the primaries constitute a grave violation of our party’s Constitution and the Electoral Act “The eloquent aspirant went further: “The arrangements for the Presidential Primary has not been published so that everyone will know. Who are those to conduct the primaries, including accreditation of delegates, screening of aspirants etc? As a Presidential aspirant, I am yet to know the arrangements put in place for the conduct of the primaries,”  he added that in view of the alleged imperfections, he was leaving the party.

“I regret to inform you that I will not participate in tomorrow’s primaries until the constitution of the party is respected and all the defects are rectified,” he said.