No one can exclude me from 2027 presidential race — Gbenga Hashim

Presidential candidate of the Accord Party, Dr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has sworn that no administrative action by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) could stop his candidacy for the 2027 presidential election.

Hashim was reacting to his exclusion from the final list of presidential candidates published by INEC, over the weekend.

In a statement issued in Abuja, on Sunday, Hashim described the development as a matter that remained subject to judicial determination, insisting that he remains the duly nominated presidential candidate of the Accord Party.

“I am the candidate of the Accord party. No one can exclude me from the 2027 presidential election. The court will do justice, he said.

Hashim said Nigeria’s constitutional democracy did not confer on INEC an overriding power of “finality” over disputes concerning who emerges as a political party’s candidate.

According to him, the adjudicatory powers vested in the courts exist precisely to prevent administrative decisions from becoming instruments of impunity or a means of foreclosing legitimate political rights.

“Our democracy does not give INEC any right of finality over who stands as the candidate of a political party. Where there is a dispute over the emergence or exclusion of a candidate, the adjudicatory functions of the courts are provided precisely to prevent impunity and to ensure that no administrative process becomes a pre-planned mechanism for keeping particular candidates off the ballot.

“We have seen this before. In the last Osun governorship election, the courts intervened in circumstances where candidates initially excluded from INEC’s processes were subsequently restored to the ballot. That is why nobody should assume that an administrative publication by INEC is the final word in a matter that is before the courts.”

Hashim has already taken the matter before the Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking, among other reliefs, an order compelling the Accord Party to recognise him as its presidential candidate and transmit his name to INEC. The case has been heard and reserved for judgment.