AHEAD of the 2019 general elections, 10 additional political parties on Monday fused with the Coalition of Concerned Political Parties (CUPP) and adopted the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
At a brief ceremony in Abuja yesterday, the 10 political parties signed a Memorandum Of Understanding with the CUPP, a coalition of over 40 opposition political Parties earlier formed to wrestle power with President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress, APC‎ in the forthcoming Presidential poll.
Recalled that some of the over 40 political parties under the aegis of the CUPP had two weeks ago adopted Atiku.
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Speaking at the signing ceremony of the MOU, the Chairman of the steering committee of CUPP, and former Osun State governor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, announced that another set of six political parties had already submitted applications to be part of the coalition.
Prince Oyinlola who said that the game was up for the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC declared that the only option for President Buhari and the APC was to immediately throw in the towel before they were disgraced at the poll going by high rate Nigerians were now embracing the coalition ahead of the 2019 elections.
According to him, developments in the country were clear indications that Buhari and the APC were not prepared for leadership and that Nigerians were fed up with their style of administration which had brought untold hardship to the nation since assumption of office.
He listed some of the new entrants in the opposition grand alliance are Save Nigeria Congress(SNC) United Patriots (UP); Reformed and Advancement Party (RAP); Alliance for Social Democrats, (ASD); We the People Nigeria(WPP).
Oyinlola declared that the exit of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) from the CUPP was basically because it was not able to realize it’s political agenda within the CUPP fold.
Speaking on how the CUPP would withdraw candidates of its members’ parties from participating in the election, Oyinlola said‎ “we are working against a General and we need to be strategic, so I will not go beyond that”
Barely two weeks ago, opposition parties numbering over 40 adopted Atiku Abubakar, as their consensus candidate for the 2019 presidential election.
In doing that, the CUPP disclosed that the decision was arrived at, few hours after a closed-door deliberation among members of the coalition.
According to the statement issued by CUPP spokesman, Ugochinyere Ikenga, “Over 41 political parties in attendance endorsed the decision which enjoyed majority support.
The coalition said it arrived at the choice of Abubakar after he towered high on the criteria used by the opposition in arriving at the decision.
“The criteria include national acceptability; financial capacity; spread of his political party; leadership capacity; international acceptability; experience; capacity to rebuild the economy; secure the country and unite all Nigerians.’’
and then