Duke remains our candidate, not Buhari – C/River SDP



The Social Democratic Party (SDP) governorship candidate in Cross River State, Mr Eyo Ekpo, has rejected the recent adoption of President Muhammadu Buhari, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by the party’s National Executive Council (NEC).

The party described the adoption of the APC candidate as undemocratic and against the SDP constitution and therefore, said that the exercise is null and void.

Ekpo, who spoke in Calabar Tuesday, said that the party’s presidential candidate remains Mr. Donald Duke, who won the primaries of the party in October 2018.

The governorship candidate said, the executive members of the SDP and all the party’s candidates in the state would continue to work with Mr. Duke towards winning the presidential election on Saturday.

“We will continue to support Donald Duke for the presidency because the decision of the NEC of the party doesn’t have popular support of the people. Duke remains the candidate of the party recognized by INEC”.

Mr Eyo, who was former Attorney General of Cross River state, said he was confident of victory in the March 2 gubernatorial election because of the poor performance of the PDP administration.

According to him, because of the poor performance of Governor Ayade even the people of the northern side where he comes from would not vote for him.

He said the governor noticed this during his state tour that people were more concerned about good governance and not where the Governor comes from.

He added that the two major political parties, the PDP and APC have failed in delivering good governance in the state, saying that SDP was the better alternative which would reposition the state in the part of greatness.

He said, “We started our state-wide tour last week from the north. Why we started from the north is simple; because the governor is from the north. From what we saw, I can tell you that Cross River north is the most deprived part of the state under Ayade.”

“Last year during the burial of Late John Odey, the governor promised that the 147Km Mfon-Obudu road would be commissioned before December but from what we saw, it doesn’t look like anything would happen even if Ayade is given another four years.”

He added that “the people of the north and the entire state are waiting for respite from the SDP because the two major political parties have failed us.”

Also, Ekpo berated the candidate of the APC, Senator John Owan Enoh, for allegedly failing in his legislative duties in 20 years.

“We have a man who has been in the legislature for 20 years and now wants to be governor. Now where are the bills to his name? Where are the institutions, the projects he has attracted to the state?

“It’s not enough to go the national assembly, get money and come back home to give a few people or buy sewing machines or fairly used cars for people.”

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