The national leadership of Accord Party on Wednesday dismissed reports that Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim is it’s presidential candidate.

The National Chairman of the Accord party, Maxwell Mgbuden, in a statement issued in Abuja, said that the party did not hold any presidential primary.

The rebuttal is coming two days after Olawepo-Hashim’s media office announced his emergence after alleged affirmation primaries that recorded massive turn out of party members and supporters across participating states.

But Mgbuden maintained the supposed exercise that produced him was not acknowledged by the national leadership and was nothing more than a rally organised by his supporters.

“The so-called presidential primary where he was reported to have emerged as the ‘presidential candidate of Accord’ in the national media was not conducted by our great party and has no effect whatsoever,” he said.

“It was a fanfare by his supporters and should not be misconstrued to be the party’s presidential primary. “No,” said the other.

The party chairman said it had no credible presidential aspirant within the time frame given in its approved guidelines, timetable and schedule of activities submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

While several aspirants bought nomination forms for governorship, National Assembly and state legislative positions, nobody filled the requisites to contest for the presidency within the approved period, he said.

Also, Accord said Olawepo-Hashim formally expressed his interest to contest for the presidency only in a letter dated May 26, 2026, after the deadline for the submission and screening of aspirants had expired.

“As a consequence, the electoral umpire was duly informed of the cancellation of the party scheduled presidential primary,” the statement added.

Mgbuden also revealed that it received ₦50 million from Olawepo-Hashim after the expiration of the nomination process.

“The payment is made up of ₦10 million for the expression of interest form and ₦40 million for the nomination form,” he said.

“Dr Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim paid for the said expression of interest and nomination forms into the party’s bank account after the expiration of the period the party set for the purchase of the forms and the screening of any aspirant for president,” the statement said.

The party further said that it then directed its bankers to reverse the payments to the originating account as the same could not be processed under the nomination exercise which had already been closed.

“Following the cherished principles of the Accord of transparency, accountability and due process, the party directed its bankers to reverse the payments of ₦10,000,000 and ₦40,000,000 being expression of interest and nomination forms fees respectively to the originating bank,” it said.

Accord also dismissed what it termed Olawepo-Hashim’s claim that he was to automatically become the party’s candidate because no other aspirant sought the ticket.

It stressed the importance of following its nomination procedures irrespective of the number of aspirants.

“The non-existence of other aspirants will not dispense with these mandatory conditions nor confer automatic entitlement to nomination,” Mgbuden explained.

The leadership also disclosed that it had formally communicated its position to Olawepo-Hashim in a letter dated May 31, stating that his expression of interest and the subsequent petition could not be processed as they were submitted outside the approved timeframe.

“At this time, Accord has no presidential candidate for the 2027 general election. However, the party fielded candidates for gubernatorial and legislative positions,” Mgbuden said.

The post Accord Party Rejects Olawepo-Hashim as Presidential Candidate, Refunds ₦50 Million Nomination Fee appeared first on TheNigerian.

Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, who ran for president in the past, has spoken out about what he calls the underreporting of mass killings in Nigeria. He warns that the growing silence around the violence shows a dangerous lack of value for human life.

Olawepo-Hashim said that the repeated attacks in different parts of the country show that the security crisis is getting worse and not getting the attention it needs, both in Nigeria and from the rest of the world.

It was reported that the former presidential candidate said in a statement released to the press on Sunday, April 12, 2026, that the true scale of the killings was being “dangerously underreported and increasingly normalised.”

Hashim is worried about the killings in Kebbi.
He talked about recent attacks in the Shanga Local Government Area of Kebbi State, where more than 40 people are said to have died in the past week.

He said that local sources said the death toll could rise even more because more bodies were still being found after the attacks.

He also said that many homes were destroyed during the violence, which made life even harder for people in the affected communities.

Olawepo-Hashim said that the same area had been attacked before, and that attack reportedly killed at least seven people. He called the repeated attacks disturbing and mostly unpunished.

He said, “What we are seeing is a pattern of mass killings that don’t get people angry or get the world’s attention.”

The politician also talked about similar events in Kwara State, especially in the local government areas of Kaiama, Baruten, and Ifelodun, where he said between 20 and 50 people were reportedly killed in the last few weeks.

He said that five forest guards were among the victims and that many of the incidents didn’t get much attention outside of local news sites.

He says that the lack of coverage of these deadly attacks is part of a worrying trend in which large-scale killings are no longer taken seriously.

Olawepo-Hashim also said that the violence in the North-Central region was still very bad, pointing to the fact that people were being killed over and over again in Benue and Plateau states.

He said that Benue State saw between 50 and 100 deaths in just a few weeks, and that Plateau State saw coordinated night attacks that reportedly killed between 30 and 80 people.

He also said that Niger State and Nasarawa State had deaths of 20 to 50 and 10 to 20, respectively.

He says that the total number of deaths in the affected areas could be between 130 and 300 in a short amount of time.

Olawepo-Hashim called the killings “selective attention and dangerous silence” by the international community, saying they were “alarming.”

He said that global organizations like the United Nations and the African Union had not done enough to respond to the attacks, even though they were happening on a large scale in some parts of the country.

He says that the silence has continued to make people worry that Nigerians are not getting the value they deserve in times of national tragedy.

“There is a growing belief that Nigerian lives have been so devalued that even simple condolences are no longer given,” he said.

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Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, a former presidential candidate for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), has declared that the party cannot be revived.

In an interview on Arise Television’s “Prime Time” on Tuesday, Olawepo-Hashim, a recent PDP defector, made the statement.

He declared that he had given up on the celebration and that trying to save it would be futile.

He stated that he would not participate in a procedure that elevates the incumbent and that he was all for bringing the party’s sections together.

Olawepo-Hashim: “A PDP minister who is collaborating with the opposition has turned the PDP into a party in his own pocket. I quit up because trying to save the PDP is futile.

“Well, until the FCT Minister Nyesom Wike’s faction held their own convention, I was still open to the idea that we should be able to reconcile the party.”

“Even before to the Appeal Court’s ruling, which was, let’s harmonize the genuine executive, I was hopeful that the parties’ agreement would be upheld in principle.

“The Joint National Executive Committee will meet, and if a convention is held at all, it will be a unity convention that essentially approves the harmonized list.”

However, by the time the Wike’s group entered their own convention, they had essentially done everything on their own.

“Well, that wasn’t the biggest obstacle for me, but there was this loud announcement that Bola Tinubu, the current president, would be ratified in 2027.”

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A former presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has disclosed that the lingering leadership crisis rocking the party can be resolved within one week if the leadership of the party adopts political solutions rather than prolonged legal battles.

Olawepo-Hashim stated this on Tuesday during a meeting with the PDP National Chairman, Tanimu Turaki, SAN, as part of ongoing consultations aimed at achieving an out-of-court resolution of the party’s internal dispute.
According to Olawepo-Hashim, resolving the crisis through political engagement would better serve the survival of the party and strengthen Nigeria’s multiparty democracy.

He further stated that the party already possesses the constitutional authority required to resolve the impasse without resorting to litigation.
“There are more than enough legitimate members of the National Executive Committee, NEC, to convene a meeting and resolve this crisis within one week,” Olawepo-Hashim said.

He cited Sections 3(1) and 3(4) of the PDP Constitution, which empower two-thirds of NEC members to convene a meeting, noting that the majority of NEC members were elected before the disputed Ibadan convention and therefore retain unquestionable legitimacy.
Olawepo-Hashim noted that although the tenure of some members of the National Working Committee, NWC, expired on December 8, the pre-Ibadan NEC members remain constitutionally empowered to intervene and take corrective action in the overall interest of the party.

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