“SDP not getaway car for a conspiracy, robbery,” Adebayo tackles Atiku, El-Rufai

By Adex Ojosule

Mr. Adewole Adebayo, the 2023 presidential candidate of Social Democratic Party (SDP) has said there is need for former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai to explain their motive for the coalition they are seeking with the party ahead of the 2027 poll.

Adebayo who also emphasized that he will contest for the presidency in 2027 said Atiku and El-Rufai should properly explain their motive for the coalition of opposition parties they are plotting before the SDP can jump into it.

Recall that the former Kaduna governor had recently decamped from the APC to SDP, citing failure of the administration of President Bola Tinubu’s administration to meet his expectations.

Atiku, who contested the presidency under the platform of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in 2023 has also been at the vanguard of the moves to form a coalition of opposition political parties against Tinubu ahead of the 2027 election.

But speaking during the 50th birthday of his wife, Queen Lillian Adebayo in Abuja, Adebayo said El-Rufai and Atiku will not be allowed to hijack SDP for their personal battles against Tinubu, saying the party will not be a “getaway car for a conspiracy and robbery”.

Adebayo said: “Of course, my party knows that I’m running for the 2027 election. As for the coalition, we are listening to them. We don’t want to be a getaway car for a conspiracy and robbery we did not plan. That’s not available.

“If the coalition is for the Nigerian people, the SDP is available. But if it is just a crime centre for disappointed Tinubu followers, they should go back to him and resolve their differences there. Don’t come to SDP to borrow us for a fight we are not involved in.”

Also speaking at the event, the presidential candidate of African Action Congress (AAC) in 2023, Omoyele Sowore, said he support coalitions and opposition, but not like the kind that has people like El-Rufai.

“When the time comes, the moment they are offered what they want, they will go back to where they came from.

“The APC was a coalition. Did you forget? The people who are asking to form another coalition were former APC members. In fact, most of them were Buhari cabinet members who are supposed to be in prison forming a union of prisoners, not coalitions.”