No fewer than three political parties that were said to be members of the loose Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), have dissociated themselves from the reported endorsement of Atiku Abubakar, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 presidential election.

The parties are Kowa, Grassroots Development Party of Nigeria (GDPN) and Social Democratic Party (SDP).

“Kowa Party stands for transparency and accountability and we consider the CUPP process largely flawed and quite dubiously executed. We had nothing to do with it and are not aware”, the party said.

SDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr Mohammed Alfa, who also said the party was not part of the endorsement stated that the party already has a candidate, Mr Donald Duke, whose name had been submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2019 election.

Alfa said that the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party would meet next week to take a position on the issue.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the loose Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), on Wednesday, announced that it had endorsed Atiku, the PDP candidate for the 2019 presidential election.

The spokesman of the group, Mr Ikenga Ugochukwu, who announced the endorsement, said Atiku is the coalition’s consensus candidate.

However, SDP publicity secretary said it was not part of the endorsement.

“We want to enjoin the general public, SDP faithful, and 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 appropriate statement on the matter next week.”

The SDP is 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 party All Progressive Congress (APC) in the 2019 election with the aim of forming a government of national unity. (NAN)

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