Fela Durotoye duly elected ANN’s presidential candidate, says party chairman

By G9ija

Ahead of the 2019 Presidential election, the national chairman of the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), Emmanuel Dania, has said that Fela Durotoye remained its Presidential candidate who was duly elected in the party’s recent Presidential primaries supervised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The national chairman stated this in a recent interview with Journalist in Lagos, saying that the process that led to the emergency of Durotoye was transparency, free and fair, and was in accordance with the guidelines of the party.

Dania stressed that the ANN’s presidential primaries held on Saturday 29th September 2018 is the only recognized convention by INEC and the outcome of Mr. Fela Durotoye as the presidential candidate stands.

Fela Durotoye [4th right]; Chairman Board of Trustees – Dr. Nkata Chukwu[5th left] Chairman of the Party, Mr. Emmanuel Dania [3rd left] and other members of the party with INEC officials led by Mr. J.O Olu at the ANN party primaries held on Saturday, 29th September 2018.
Dania described plan by an embattled presidential aspirant of the party, Gbenga Olawepo, to hold another presidential primaries has illegal, noting that Olawepo had earlier written a letter to the party seeking a change of date in the initial party’s presidential primaries which was rejected by the party.

He added that Olawepo subsequently wrote a letter to the party and INEC withdrawing from the Presidential primaries, wondering why he was now desperate to be its presidential aspirant at the backdoor, stressing that any move by him to hold another presidential primaries would be resisted by the party.

“We set out to carry-out our primaries like it is written in our guidelines, we fulfil all conditions like other parties, the process was open for all to see, but a few days before the primaries one of the presidential aspirant who had been requesting for a change of date and we had said there would be no reason to change the date.

“But he also wrote a letter drawing from the race, while also copying INEC, let us say that in this party we are not aware of such primaries and it is illegal.

Fela Durotoye was duly elected has the presidential primaries of the ANN and the primaries was observed by INEC and he remains our Presidential candidate”. Dania said.
Speaking further, the national chairman said that the party would transformed the country and alleviate poverty among the populace if given the opportunity to lead the country after the 2019 general elections, stressing that the ANN was the only party with a people’s centre policies.

He lamented upsurge of vote- buying in recent elections across the country, while advocating for a mental shift among Nigerians for the country to attain its desired position.

“Our plan is to deliver a new Nigeria for Nigerians; we have seen the effect of bad democracy, you can see the effect across the country, Nigerians are hungry, they are now buying your votes, if a man has paid for your votes he does not owe you anything.

“This party want to be involved in the country, we want to change the way things are done and deliver dividend of democracy to Nigerians”. Dania added.