The 2023 presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Adewole Adebayo, has welcomed the former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai to the party.

El-Rufai, a founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), had on Monday, March 10, announced his defection from the APC to the SDP.

He cited a growing misalignment between his personal values and the current direction of the APC as the primary reason for his decision.

However, welcoming him into the SDP, Adebayo noted that with an avid worker like El-Rufai joining the party, it is time to liberate Nigerians from the shackles of poverty and insecurity into which the APC has put them over the years.

Adebayo, in a statement, said: “On behalf of the teeming members of the SDP and patriotic democrats, who believe in Nigeria and her promise of inevitable greatness, I heartily welcome my dear brother El-Rufai to our party.

“With the hardworking and sagacious Mallam joining our ranks, an avid worker for the people has been enlisted in our forces against poverty and insecurity.

“Now is the time for us to put our collective shoulders behind the efforts to fulfil Chapter 2 of the Constitution and rescue Nigerians from bad governance and underdevelopment to restore #HopeAgain 2027 to the suffering masses callously left behind in the locust years of the APC and its co-traveller PDP.”

Adebayo emphasised that all genuine democrats and true nationalists who believe in order, decency and honesty are welcomed to SDP “where we are governed by law, not men, constitution not constipation of money or personal ambition.

“Together, following the law, the constitution and manifesto of our party, we can set a good example of clean and ethical politics to emulate and rally Nigeria to the forefront of the liberation of Africa and peoples of the Black World.

“Good politics begets good governance. Let no one sit on the fence any further. There is no time to waste. Join us on March. God bless Nigeria.”