Crisis Rocks SDP Over Disputed NWC Appointments Following El-Rufai’s Defection

The Social Democratic Party (SDP), previously seen as a stable opposition force, has been plunged into a major internal crisis following the controversial appointment of three new members to its National Working Committee (NWC).

Last week, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Araba Rufus Aiyenigba, announced the filling of three vacant positions within the NWC. The appointments included Senator Ugochukwu Ubah as Deputy National Chairman (South), Alhaji Shehu Musa as Deputy National Chairman (North), and Bello Ado Hussain as National Financial Secretary.

The move, interpreted by political observers as a strategy to strengthen the party ahead of the 2027 general elections, has instead sparked division among the party’s top ranks.

Although the appointments were said to have been made during a meeting chaired by the SDP National Chairman, Alhaji Shehu Musa Gabam, a twist emerged when Gabam, through the party’s Deputy National Secretary, Muhammad Biu, publicly denied any such meeting or appointments took place.

Gabam dismissed the announcement as “false, unauthorized, and misleading,” asserting that no constitutional session of the NWC had convened to make such decisions. He accused unnamed individuals of attempting to destabilize the party ahead of the elections.