Social Democratic Party distances itself from consensus candidate saying Donald Duke is its man

NIGERIA'S Social Democratic Party (SDP) has distanced itself from a recent declaration by the Coalition of United Political Parties (Cupp) that it was one of the parties that had endorsed former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar for president in next year's elections.

Made up of 46 parties, the Cupp announced earlier this week, that all of its members were backing Alhaji Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in next February's elections. This would imply that all the parties would not field their own presidential candidates and those already have will ask them to stand down for Alhaji Abubakar.

In what is expected to be a two-horse race between Alhaji Atiku and incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC), next year's elections are too close to call. Apart from the two main contenders, there are 29 other candidates who have signified their intention to run so far.

On Wednesday, the Cupp said that it was endorsing Alhaji Abubakar as the consensus candidate for the 2019 presidential elections. Cupp spokesman Ikenga Ugochinyere, who made the announcement, however, did not indicate as to whether all the other parties had been contacted or provide details of how the consensus candidate decision was reached.

In a swift reaction, the SDP's publicity secretary Mohammed Alfa, said the party already had its own presidential candidate, in former Cross River State governor Donald Duke whose name had been submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission. He added that the SDP's national working committee (NWC) would meet next week to take a position on the issue.

Mr Alfa said: “We want to enjoin the general public, SDP faithful, especially all our candidates to carry on with their campaigns effectively, irrespective of the development. We assure you that the SDP NWC will meet and issue an appropriate statement on the matter next week.”

Earlier this year, the SDP was one of the 39 opposition parties that formed CUPP in July 2018 with the aim of producing a presidential candidate that can defeat the ruling APC. At the time, it was expected that the parties would then come together to form a government of national unity.