Hello good people of my dear State, Omo Ogun ti kin yo se. I am your dear Lanre Oyegbola and by the grace of God have been serving as the National Auditor of Alliance for New Nigeria since the conclusion of our convention in August.

A lot has happened during and after the convention and Chief amongst them is the Presidential Primary that held yesterday where Mr Fela Durotoye emerged having fulfilled the provisions of the Constitution and pooled 240 votes against Mr Gbenga Olawepo-Hasim who pulled out of the primaries barely 24 hours to the primary and who pooled 7 votes because a number of his supporters were still present during the primaries.

Prior to this time, the National Working Committee being the arm of the party saddles with the responsibility of running the affairs and day to day activities of the party with due guidance of the BoT and the approvals of the National Executive Committee that is composed of all the State Chairmen.

The NWR had presented certain memos at the last NEC Meeting of the party which was attended by over 27 Chairmen from all geo political zones of the country. At this meeting, the NEC had approved the electoral guidelines and also ratified the memo proposing amongst other things the dates for all the primaries including that for the President.

The meeting rose with the confusion that the NWC should conduct a transparent, excellent and creditable primary.

Fast track to the developments.

1. The National Organising Severest has as his primary responsibilities amongst others the compilation of the delegates list and also the sub committees.

2. These two documents are important for the conduct of the primary and in line with the provisions of the Constitution.

3. He kept on these documents for the whole of the month of September and then a week ago the NWC decided to have continuous meetings until all the documents are ready and to allow the party conduct the primaries and be able to submit the names of candidates to INEC by the 7th of October.

4. The 7the October deadlines was repeated brought to fore as the NWC met by the National Secretary who had earlier in the month attended a session called by INEC with all political parties and warned of the need to ensure strict adherence to the dates and deadlines.

5. And since the party had fixed the 29th of September for the primaries and as approved by NEC, the next action was to deliver the special convention and Presidential Primary.

6. Then the NWC kept on, including myself, we would arrive by 9am and would not leave the national secretariat not close to midnight.

7. And what were doing, waiting for the Organizing Secretary and the documents. And then as we wait and meet, we are confronted with different concerns; Chief amongst them was the methods for the primary.

8. The Constitution of the party provides for both direct and indirect. We considered both and realised that it will cost the party well over N150m to deliver a direct primary and conducting an indirect primary would cost as much as N50m.

9. As a young party with no money bags, we began to ask questions. How do we fund this budget? And in the event that we have the money, would it be wise to spend such money on a primary where the main election would require so much money in the days and weeks ahead.

10. The Deputy National Chairman and Organising Secretary kept assuring the committee that the money would come and then we said it's better to be prudent with funds instead.

11. Then we were faced with another challenge, some states that haven't conduct congresses and the Secretariat had notified INEC of its position of not being able to conduct congresses in those states and chief amongst them is Kano State. Kano State is the state of the Deputy National Chairman.

12. Then the issue of integrity came to bear. We as a party had vowed to do things differently and that would be tested. So, a group are of the view that we include these states in the primaries and another were keen on staying faithful to the ethos of the party, it's constitution and then not commit a fraud against the electoral act and the condition of the Federal Republic of a Nigeria.

13. These group that wanted things done the 'normal' have come with experiences of their past escapades in the two political parties that has ruined Nigeria - PDP and APC. They were keen against every form of reason to smuggle these states into the process. And then arguments dragged for 3 days.

14. And when on Thursday night it became obvious that their position wouldn't hold and they decided that the primary wouldn't hold and must be postponed against the approved date by the NEC.

15. And by this time we have less than 48 hours to the date communicated to all including INEC which is Saturday, September 29, 2018.

16. By Friday, September 28, we were all meant to be in the secretariat to activate all the plans but everyone with earlier mentioned responsibility were absent. The National Organizing Secretary, Deputy National Chairman and the National Secretary were all absent.

17. And since the party is bigger than every member and officer of the party, the party supremacy can't be tampered with by anyone including the National Chairman. Hence the insistence by all other members to ensure the primary goes on as planned and the BoT met and insisted on same.

18. By the evening of Friday, September 28, 2018 Mr Olawepo-Hasim issues a press statement of his intention to pull out of the Presidential primaries citing all the points above and claiming NEC didn't approve or rectify the guidelines.

19. Since the materials were all commissioned, the electoral Sub committee of the convention decided to conduct the elections and it was recorded live. I your kinsman was privileged to chair that committee and I faithfully ensured that no one was favoured and the process produced the votes earlier quoted above.


Now we have been reading all sort of stories and accounts. I was there throughout. I left my work for a whole week and moved to Abuja at my own cost and I am giving you a first hand account of all that happened.

Let me ask you and anyone that cares,

1. how did Mr Gbenga Olawepo-Hasim got to know the cost for the Expression of Interest form and the nomination form if it was not published?

2. Why would the National Deputy Chairman who is from Kano and had contested the Presidency before not swing into action to organise the congress in Kano immediately after the convention knowing that it's those states that has conducted Congress that can present delegates?

3. Why didn't the National Secretary that attended the meeting and who was a party to the idea of rescheduling the date of the primary to October 3rd not tell his principal that the position of INEC?

There may be some more questions and am sure you can also think through and ask me and then much more.

For me what is important is this, I wanted all the aspirants of our party to have a fair chance, becomes candidates and then run for elections.

I wanted us to win elections and since the 12th of August I have been working towards this even in Ogun.

And to have our candidates not on the ballot because we wouldn't be able to meet the deadlines was a NO for me. And I vehemently resisted that. For this reason, we have become enemies to some of the leaders of the party and an aspirant.

Please make your deductions.
Thank you and God bless ANN

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