A former governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke, on Tuesday disclosed that he would run for the 2019 presidency under the platform of the Social Democratic Party, SDP.
Duke, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, announced his decision at SDP’s national secretariat in Abuja, where he was received by the party’s National Secretary, Shehu Gabam, and Publicity Secretary, Alfa Mohammed.
The former two-term governor of Cross River State on the platform of PDP said he left his “party of about 20 years because it had derailed and lost its values and was not the same party he joined back then.”
Addressing journalists at SDP’s National Secretariat, in Abuja, the former governor also faulted PDP’s decision to zone the Presidency to the North.
Duke said he was a loyal member of the PDP for 20 years but left because the party lost focus.
He said, “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.
“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.”
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