Nigeria holds presidential election on February 23, 2019 and at the last count, 12 presidential candidates from a large pool of 72, have pulled out of the race and endorsed APC candidate Buhari.

A sprinkling of that number have also abandoned their presidential bids, amid funding challenges, to throw whatever is left of their weights, behind Atiku of the PDP.

As a gale of abandoned presidential bids swept through the cyberspace, YPP’s Moghalu who has run a spirited grassroots campaign, was also rumoured to have abandoned his bid.

However, in a statement sent to Pulse by Jide Akintunde, spokesperson of the YPP Campaign Council, Moghalu maintains that he’s still in the race to win it and warned Atiku and Buhari that an imminent defeat awaits them in Saturday’s vote.

He also described rumours of his stepping down as ‘fake news’. 

“Our attention has been drawn to another fake news on the social media that Moghalu has endorsed President Muhammadu Buhari. Nigerians should disregard this deliberate falsehood”, the statement read.

He added that “similar fake news was being circulated from the camp of the PDP yesterday, which we have debunked. These are the tokens of the so-called two major parties who understand that they are heading to a humiliating defeat in tomorrow’s elections. 

“For the avoidance of doubt, the presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), Professor Kingsley Moghalu has not stepped down for any candidate in the 2019 election. He is not considering doing so. He is certain that he will win the presidential election fair and square because Nigerians are tired of the visionless APC and PDP.

“He, therefore, urges the millions of his supporters around the country and Nigerians in general to disregard the shameful antics of the political dinosaurs of the APC and PDP, who would be sent into permanent retirement with his victory”. 

A former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Moghalu, 56, recently enjoyed the endorsement of Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka.

84 million Nigerians registered to vote in the general elections. Of this number, 72.8 million, representing 86.63 percent, retrieved their voters’ cards from the electoral commission.

51 percent of registered voters are young people aged 18-35. 

This will be Nigeria's sixth presidential election since returning to democracy in 1999, after decades of military rule interspersed with bouts of pseudo civilian dispensations.