The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) Thursday, abandoned two of its presidential candidates and adopted President Muhammadu Buhari as its candidate for the 2019 election.
This is coming less than a week after retired military generals pledged their support to the candidature of President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressive Congress (APC) for his reelection bid ahead of the presidential elections slated for February 16, a faction of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), has adopted him as its consensus candidate.
In a statement signed by the party’s Director of Media and Publicity, Yemi Akinbode, he said the decision was part of National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the party, yesterday in Abuja.
His words: “The National Executive Council (NEC) of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has resolved to adopt President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo of the All Progressive Congress (APC), as candidates of the Party for the 2019 presidential election.
“Members of the SDP are enjoined to vote for President Buhari,” he said.
Akinbode, who reiterated that the party does not intend to go into merger with the APC, explained the decision of the party to back APC candidate was due to the party’s inability to present and campaign for its candidate due to the “lingering legal battle between Donald Duke, the winner of the SDP presidential primaries and his major challenger, Professor Jerry Gana.
“We, therefore, feel that it is imperative to technically withdraw from the presidential election and focus on the National Assembly, governorship and state assemblies elections, for which we have fielded candidates across the country,” he added.
The party also suspended its National Publicity Secretary, Alfa Muhammad for breaching the constitution of party by allegedly indulging in anti-party activities.
As of the time of filing this report, Donald Duke could not be reached for comments, but Professor Jerry Gana is, however, expected to address the media on the development (tomorrow) today.
