Members of the Social Democratic Party’s National Working Committee will meet next week to take a position on the recent endorsement of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as the consensus presidential candidate of the Coalition of United Political Parties.
The National Publicity Secretary of the SDP, Mr Alfa Mohammed, said this in an interview with our correspondent.
The CUPP had on Wednesday endorsed Atiku of the Peoples Democratic Party as its consensus presidential candidate.
The SDP already has a former Cross River State Governor, Donald Duke, as its presidential candidate.
Mohammed, however, told our correspondent that the party would make its position on Atiku’s endorsement known after its NWC meeting.
“All I can say for now is that the NWC of our party will hold a crucial meeting next week.
“The issue of the endorsement will be discussed at the meeting and a statement will be issued thereafter,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Grassroots Development Party of Nigeria has rejected Atiku’s endorsement.
In a statement made available to journalists by its Presidential candidate, Dr Davidson Akhimien, the party said it was against the CUPP’s decision to endorse Atiku.
Akhimien said as of the time the meeting where Atiku was endorsed was ongoing in Abuja, he was in Lagos.
He said his party’s leaders were also not part of the resolution reached at the meeting, hence he would not abandon his ambition.
The GDPN presidential candidate said his party was committed to making Nigeria a better place for all.
He said abandoning his ambition would amount to a betrayal of trust.
Akhimien said, “The time to move Nigeria forward is now. Our party is on a rescue mission. We can’t mortgage the future of our great nation.
“We do not agree with the CUPP on the endorsement of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. We are on the ground in all the 36 states of the federation and the FCT.”
But the presidential candidate of the Mass Action Joint Alliance, Funmilayo Adesanya-Davies, has congratulated Atiku on his endorsement.
In a statement by the Assistant Director-General, Media of PMA Campaign Organisation, Kana Sani, the candidate commended the effort of the CUPP that ended in the emergence of a consensus candidate.
“It is imperative for all other CUPP presidential aspirants to take seriously the Memorandum of Understanding which was signed earlier and support the single candidacy of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar,“ she said.
