Electoral Act: Olawepo-Hashim accuses PDP, APC of playing pranks

Peoples Trust (PT) presidential candidate Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim yesterday accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of playing pranks due to their hypocritical commitment to the proposed Electoral Act.

He accused both parties of playing politics with the nation’s stability with their handling of constitutional issues.

Olawepo-Hashim, whose party has been described as the third force, said the PDP and APC presidential candidates are obsessed with immediate partisan gains, instead of acting as statesmen.

He spoke with reporters in Lagos on the president’s refusal assent to the amendment bill, which he recalled, was passed by the PDP-controlled National Assembly.

Olawepo-Hashim said: “The President is conducting himself like a typical Nigerian politician of the era of political decline, rather than behaving as a patriot that I have always thought he is. By his actions, he is simply saying let me benefit from the process for my 2019 bid. You can push for the new law in 2023 when I will not be contesting.”

The PT flag bearer noted that the PDP-led legislature had ample time to correct the perceived lacuna in the electoral act, which they had created in the first instance, but chose to distract the polity.

He added: “In the task of nation building, political leaders sometimes have to rise above the fray and take decisions in the national interest, even when it does not seem to benefit from it. Some of us did this before. In 2000, when some of our colleagues wanted to change our two-year tenure to four years, I led the opposition to this, even though I would have been a beneficiary of that exercise as a National Executive Committee (NEC) member.”

Olawepo-Hashim urged the electorate not to be discouraged from participating in next year’s polls.

He said: “Since what I can call the “garrison” election in Osun State and the unfortunate refusal of assent to the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, the APC has been trying to spread fear in the hearts of would-be voters that their votes will not count.”