A chieftain of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Adewole Adebayo says politicians planning to join the party, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi must be ready to abide by the rules if they eventually become member of the party.
Adebayo, the 2023 Presidential candidate of the SDP made the assertion amidst suggestions that the two former presidential candidates and top opposition leaders in the country are currently in talks with the party’s leadership to join SDP.
The SDP former presidential candidate spoke on Channels Television ‘Politics Today’ on Sunday.
Abubakar and Obi were presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and Labour Party, LP, respectively during the 2023 presidential elections.
The duo has been rumoured to be planning to dump their respective political parties in other to move to the SDP.
Their rumoured defections came after a former governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El Rufai dumped the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC for the SDP last month.
The former Kaduna governor, following his defection, had called on top opposition leadesr to join him in his new party to wrestle power from the APC.
Speaking, Adebayo disclosed that both Abubakar and Obi are currently in talks with the leadership of the party, on their plan to become members of the party, saying that they will however need to abide by the rules because “the only little issue we have with some of them is to change the culture,”, adding that they will be welcome if they decided to leave their current parties for SDP.
Apart from Abubakar and Obi, the SDP chieftain said “lot of people are coming, and we will welcome them” into the fold of the party.
“People are joining my party, and we are welcoming them. You can see how active I am in welcoming them. The only little issue we have with some of them is to change the culture where if you have not been in an environment where rules are taken seriously,” he said.
“Some of them are doing some Boy Scouts, black market operations, we are dealing with that. But we welcome them into the party. All these people you have mentioned, El-Rufai, Atiku Abubakar, and even former Governor Peter Obi, are coming. A lot of people are coming, and we will welcome them.
When he was asked to clarify if Obi, a former Anambra State governor, is joining the SDP, Adebayo said, “Supposedly, until somebody joins, we don’t know. But people have told me, and the Financial Secretary (SDP) has also informed me, that they are talking. So we will welcome everybody.
“Surely, when we come in, and we don’t become a tower of Babel; if we come in, follow the rules and allow one person to emerge transparently, clearly, without cheating, without criminality the way we did our convention in 2022, people applauded us transparently, no court case, no crisis, no allegations.
“If they can stick to our culture and follow the way we do in the SDP and produce a good alternative to Nigerians, we are going to manifestly defeat the APC and retire President Tinubu to Lagos or wherever he chooses in Nigeria.”
Since El Rufai joined the SDP in March, a slew of politicians have indicated their interests to come into its fold, in their quest to form a common platform to wrestle power from the ruling APC in the 2027 general elections.
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