Ex-Governor to run for President with SDP, dumps PDP after 20 years

Former Cross River State governor, Donald Duke, has dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and announced his intention to contest in the 2019 presidential election on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

The former governor disclosed this on Tuesday, September 4, 2018, while at the national secretariat of the SDP where he was received by the party's leadership.

"I was a member of the PDP but over the years we saw the fortunes and the values of the party dwindle. When a former President walks out of his party, you know there is something. Over the years, you will see that it lost its values and became a shadow of itself," he said.

Duke's decision to leave the PDP to actualise his presidential ambition may be down to the fact that the party has already zoned its 2019 presidential ticket to a candidate from the northern region of the country.

While speaking on Tuesday, he said, "That the PDP is zoning today is actually a betrayal of those ideals it started off with because it was a national organisation. Today, in some parts of the country, it is hardly in existence."

If he had decided to run on the platform of the PDP, he would have had to battle for the ticket against a list of aspirants largely from the north. The list includes former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal, Gombe State governor, Ibrahim Dankwambo, and former governors, Sule Lamido, Attahiru Bafarawa, Jonah Jang, Ahmed Makarfi, as well as Rabiu Kwankwaso.