SDP Withdraws From Presidential Election, Endorses Another Candidate

The Social Democratic Party (SDP) has announced its withdrawal from the forthcoming presidential election.

In a statement as part of the resolutions of its National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Abuja on Thursday, the party adopted the All Progressive Congress (APC) candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari.

Naija News had reported that the SDP denied being part of the adoption of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, as the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) consensus candidate.

In the statement, the SDP NEC said, “We cannot campaign, we cannot do anything because of the protracted legal issue and we feel that it is impeccable to technically withdraw from the presidential election.

“We want to focus on the National Assembly, Governorship and State House of Assemblies election for which we have fielded candidates across the country.

“We are therefore adopting the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari, as our preferred candidate for the Feb. 16 election.”

The SDP has been entangled in a court case over who is the flagbearer of the party during the February 16 presidential election.

The Appeal Court on January 24, affirmed former Cross Rivers State Governor Donald Duke as the authentic presidential candidate for the Social Democratic Party (SDP), overturning an earlier judgment declaring Prof. Jerry Gana the candidate of the party.

The court, in a unanimous decision by a three-man panel, led by Justice Abdul Aboki, set aside the December 14, 2018 judgment of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court which had declared Gana the candidate of the party.

The party had declared Duke, the winner of the election and its flag bearer for the 2019 General Elections.

The party said that Duke polled 812 votes while Gana had 611.

However, Gana went to court seeking that it would declare him the winner in line with the zoning and rotation formula of the party’s constitution.