We’re Not Part of Coalition against Buhari, Says PDM

By Nseobong Okon -Ekong

The Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), Monday said it was not part of a coalition of opposition political parties that agreed to present a common presidential candidate to contest against President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 presidential election.

Its National Chairman, Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim, in a statement, dissociated the PDM from such coalition. He said, “the PDM is not part of any coalition of political parties or part of any arrangement to work with a group of political parties for the purpose of 2019 general elections. PDM has never attended any meeting at which such a coalition was discussed, let alone be part of it.”

Flaunting its aims and objectives, which he claimed was not in agreement with other parties mentioned in the coalition, Ibrahim described the PDM as a party of hnonorable people whose single objective may not be to capture power for its own sake.

The PDM is famously known as the political vehicle of the late former Gen. Shehu Musa Yar’Adua who died in detention under the military regime of Gen. Sani Abacha. Following his demise, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar assumed headship of the organisation and led it into a working relationship with the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

The PDM caucus in the PDP was believed to be instrumental to the success of the Chief Olusegun Obasanjo/Atiku Abubakar joint ticket in the 1999 and 2003 presidential elections. The PDM was largely quiet until it emerged in 2013 as a registered political party by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.