The Labour Party has said that the adoption of former vice president and the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, by the 37 political parties that formed the Coalition of United Political Parties, would not guarantee his victory in the 2019 election.

The party also said that the adoption of Atiku by the Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, was not an indication that the entire Southwest Nigeria was behind the Wazirin Adamawa in his bid to become the president of the country .

While disassociating itself from any merger with the CUPP, LP said that the coalition had the right to adopt Atiku as its presidential, saying it was formed initially to support a candidate to unseat President Muhammadu Buhari in the forthcoming elections.

Speaking in an interview in Abeokuta, the LP’s chairman in Ogun State, Comrade Abayomi Arabambi, said that the adoption of Atiku by CUPP was not tantamount to victory in the 2019 as he was not the only candidate vying for the seat of power at the centre.

According to Arabambi, some of the political parties that formed coalition have no offices or candidates to contest the presidential post or other political posts in the 2019 elections, noting that they were mostly seen on posters.

“It just an association of political parties and are free to adopt Atiku as their presidential candidate because we are in democracy. The adoption of Atiku by the CUPP is not tantamount to the fact that he will unseat Buhari in 2019,” he said.

“You know CUPP is the amalgamation of political parties, there are others that can do it. We have a lot of these political parties that are on papers; some of them don’t have an office in Abuja and they don’t have candidates for their parties.”

The LP Chairman also maintained that the adoption of Atiku by Afenifere was an indication that most of the group’s members belong to PDP, insisting that such adoption won’t lead to his victory in the Southwest.

“The adoption of Atiku by the Afenifere does not mean that every citizen and other leaders in Yoruba land support Atiku, because most of the members are PDP.” he stressed.