A faction of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Kwara State, known as the Original SDP, has lamented unfair treatment and sidelining from party activities by the present party executive, describing it as a total betrayal.
Addressing journalists in Ilorin at the weekend, the chairman of the faction, Comrade Mabolaje Ibrahim Yahaya, recalled that a faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state called “Kwara APC Loyal” and led by Hon. Bashiru Bolarinwa Omolaja decamped from the APC to join the SDP in April 2022 to allegedly take over control of the party.
Comrade Yahaya, who said that although judgment had been given in the case which was brought before the Federal High Court, Ilorin with the Court describing it as the party’s domestic affairs, added that the Original SDP and its legal team are consulting and still studying the judgment with a view to deciding next line of action.
He explained that the agreement between them when the said APC Loyal joined their party, (SDP), was that party offices and elective positions from the ward to the state level would be shared between the originally existing SDP members at that time and the decampees.
Yahaya expressed dismay that, “before the Kwara APC Loyal signified their intention to join the
SDP, the Kwara State Chapter of the SDP had in place well-organized party structures and executive members from the ward to the state level.
“However, in their usual betrayal attitude, immediately the APC
Loyal decamped into our party, they sidelined the already existing SDP executives led by Comrade Mabolaje Ibrahim Yahaya and bulldozed their way into buying over the National Executive of our party in Abuja with the resultant effect of taking over the party completely from those they met on ground.
“By the above action, the original existing members of our party, the SDP in Kwara State led by Comrade Mabolaje Ibrahim Yahaya felt betrayed and frustrated”.
He alleged that the new decampees in connivance with the National Secretariat of SDP organized what he called a kangaroo state SDP congress on April 26, 2022, thereby allegedly denying the existing members of SDP from participating in the said congress.
That, according to him, “is in complete violation of the SDP constitution”.
Consequently, he said, “the executives of SDP Kwara State Chapter led by Comrade Mabolaje Ibrahim Yahaya challenged the legality of the said purported state congress of the SDP in court after exhausting all avenues provided by the SDP constitution to no avail.
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