“It has come to our notice that CONYLOP, which purports to be an organisation for youth, is going to endorse the PDP presidential candidate. It has come as a shock that our party, the African Action Congress, was listed amongst the parties associated with CONYLOP and this recent development. We want to make it unequivocally clear that the AAC and the Sowore 2019 campaign has absolutely nothing to do with CONYLOP, and that we are neither part nor party to any endorsement action that they may take."
The African Action Congress (AAC) has condemned the plan by the Council of National Youth Leaders of Political Parties (CONYLOP) to endorse Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Olakunle Olawole, National Youth Leader of Kowa Party, had sent out an email invitation stating that CONYLOP would endorse Atiku at a live press conference scheduled for Thursday in Abuja.
The statement generated some controversy as it was not clear which parties fielding youth candidates would be part of the endorsement.
However, a statement by Rachel Onamusi-Kpiasi, Director, PR, Media and Communications, Sowore 2019 Campaign, condemned the said endorsement, and stressed the dissociation of the AAC, as well as Omoyele Sowore, the party’s presidential candidate, from such a move.
The statement read: “It has come to our notice that CONYLOP, which purports to be an organisation for youth, is going to endorse the PDP presidential candidate. It has come as a shock that our party, the African Action Congress, was listed amongst the parties associated with CONYLOP and this recent development.
“We want to make it unequivocally clear that the AAC and the Sowore 2019 campaign has absolutely nothing to do with CONYLOP, and that we are neither part nor party to any endorsement action that they may take.
“We consider it to be a travesty that any serious political organisation that purports to be in support of the Nigerian people would ever consider the endorsement of the PDP or its candidates. Perhaps such people need to go back to our recent history to recall the disastrous sixteen years of unbridled corruption, ineptitude and economic destruction that the PDP and Abubakar Atiku subjected Nigerians to.
“The AAC stands for peace, progress and prosperity. We are the voice of the Nigerian populace; the disenfranchised, the forgotten, the marginalised, and, as such, would like to clarify that we are NOT part of this endorsement.
“We cannot imagine why an organisation concerned with youth issues would choose to jettison youth leaders in favour of an old, corrupt, retrogressive and frankly parasitic order.
“We take this opportunity to again disavow any knowledge, participation or membership of CONYLOP, and we advise the organisation and its leadership to desist from including the AAC in any statements or activities they might engage in.
“On Saturday, 23rd February, we ask all Nigerians to look for the third party on the ballot, the African Action Congress, and vote Omoyele Sowore as the next president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”