CUPP: PDM distances self from anti-Buhari coalition

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."

Praising 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 honorable 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.