By Mike Odiakose
Ahead of the next year presidential election, the Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP, on Wednesday adopted the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, as its consensus candidate.
CUPP, the umbrella body of more than 45 major opposition parties, disclosed this in a statement issued by its National Spokesperson, Ikenga Ugochinyere.
Ugochinyere said that the decision was arrived at few hours after a closed door deliberation by members of the CUPP at Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja.
“Over 41 political parties in attendance endorsed the decision which enjoyed majority support.
“The coalition arrived at the choice of Abubakar after he towered high on the criteria used by the opposition in arriving at the decision.
“These 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.’’
Ugochinyere added that the coalition would have a formal meeting with Abubakar before Friday for final commencement of the coalition campaign.
CUPP was formed in July by the leadership of 39 opposition parties with the aim of producing a presidential candidate that would defeat the ruling party in the 2019 General Elections and later form a government of national unity.
The members of the Coalition include: the PDP, Social Democratic Party (SDP), Alliance for Democracy (AD), Africa Democratic Party (ADC), Action Democratic Party (ADP) and All Grand Alliance Party (AGAP).
Others are: Action Peoples Party (APP), Advanced Congress of Democrats (ACD), Better Nigeria Progressive Party (BNPP), Democratic Alternative (DA), and Grand Democratic Party of Nigeria (GDPN), among others.
