2019: UPP endorses Buhari

… Says it’ll be a tragedy to return PDP

The United Progressive Party (UPP) says returning the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to power in 2019 would amount to a tragedy of monumental proportion which would hurt Nigeria’s democracy.

The party, which described the 16 years of PDP’s rule as “years of profligacy, unbridled corruption, scandalous leakages and highly compromised judiciary”, it opted to endorse President Buhari because of his uprightness and credibility.

Though acknowledging that taking the decision to endorse the APC presidential candidate was difficult, the UPP Chairman, Chief Chekwas Okorie, said the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) eventually settled for Buhari based on his single-minded implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA), Bank Verification Number (BVN) policies and the freehand the administration has given the EFCC to operate.

In spite of the endorsement, the party said its core value remains unassailable noting that it would continue to advocate restructuring, self-determination of all ethnic nationalities in Nigeria, and devolution of power, among others.

Chief Okorie, who was franked by national officers, dismissed insinuations that affiliation with the APC was a subtle disposal of its insistence on State Police, Community Policing and referendum, which the APC holds contrary views on.

“We wish to emphatically state at this juncture that the core values of our Party as expressly provided in our Party Manifesto and objective principles of our Constitution registered with INEC, especially in the areas of restructuring, self-determination of all ethnic nationalities in Nigeria, devolution of power, referendum, unconditional release of prisoners of conscience, State Police, and Community policing etc, remain sacrosanct. We shall continue to explore the inclusion of these revolutionary agenda within the Coalition.

“However, our primary objective and target from now, going forward is to deploy our Ward, LG, State and National structures to aggressively campaign in a very robust, vibrant and civilized manner to ensure that President Muhammadu Buhari’s Victory in the 2019 Presidential Election will be beyond any iota of doubt. We shall do whatever that is possible to ensure that the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019 shall assume the status of a national consensus”.

The UPP also said that its members especially from the South east would stand by the APC government because of its stride in the completion of projects which were almost abandoned by the PDP governments.

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