Twenty-four hours after a group of 38 parties announced the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) to wrest power from President Muhammadu Buhari, another group of 20 political parties have joined forces with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to checkmate them.
The parties under the auspices of Coalition for Progressives Political Parties (CPPP) have resolved to back President Buhari’s re-election bid.
The political parties in pro-Buhari’s CPPP which met in Abuja on Tuesday, are: All Progressives Congress (APC), Accord Party, Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), United Progressive Party (UPP), Advanced People’s Democratic Alliance (APDA), Hope Democratic Party (HDP), Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) and Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN).
Others are: Freedom Justice Party (FJP), Fresh Party (FP), New Nigeria’s Peoples Party (NNPP), Nigeria’s Peoples Congress (NPC), Nigeria Peoples Movement (NPM), Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), National Action Congress (NAC) and NDLP.
The chairman of the coalition, who is also the National chairman of PDM, Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim, told reporters after hours of meeting at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja that the coalition was made up of like-minded political parties who believe in Nigeria’s unity and stability.
The PDM chairman alleged that most of the parties in the PDP list were fraudulently included to sign the MoU to deceive Nigerians.
He noted that while the Accord Party chairman and himself among other parties abstained from the PDP meeting, their party names were found in the list without their consent which he said raised doubt about the credibility of the coalition.
He said: “Yesterday we woke to a new development where PDP outside power has now managed to create another coalition. As facts continue to emerge, they have listed 36 political parties, our analysis of that coalition reveals that a number of political parties were included in that coalition fraudulently.
“Part of the 42 political parties they listed is Accord party and the chairman of the party is here with us.
“As of today, the membership of that coalition is in doubt. Two members also listed at that coalition are here. We are not part of that coalition because we represent a political type of politics which is in total contradiction of what they are doing.
“We do not believe that our country should be governed by people whose only objective is to capture power. Of what purpose is that coalition built? Is it for the purpose of taking Nigeria back to 1999 and 2015 or is it for the purpose of building a new Nigeria?
