Accord Party Rejects Olawepo-Hashim as Presidential Candidate, Refunds ₦50 Million Nomination Fee

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.