The Social Democratic Party has declared that it will not cede leadership positions to a bloc of politicians and individuals defecting to the party.

According to the SDP, leadership roles must be earned through due process rather than allocated based on recent affiliations.

The party’s position follows reports that some politicians who recently joined the SDP are pushing for key positions in both state and national leadership structures of the party ahead of the 2027 elections.

Former Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, defected from the ruling All Progressives Congress to the SDP three weeks ago, citing the APC’s deviation from its founding progressive ideals and the leadership’s failure to address critical issues within the party.

Others who joined the SDP include a former senator and member of the House of Representatives from Katsina, Ahmad Kaita; former Kaduna State Commissioners for Agriculture, Ibrahim Hussaini; Justice, Aisha Dikko; Health, Amina Baloni; and Education, Halima Lawal.

Also, a former Kaduna Head of Service, Bari’atu Mohammed; a former member of the APC presidential campaign team for the 2023 elections, Obinna Simon; the Campaign Secretary of the APC in Gombe State during the 2015 general elections, Adamu Modibbo; and a former APC Publicity Secretary in Borno State, Abdulaziz Galadima, defected to the SDP.

Barely 48 hours after El-Rufai’s defection, the SDP National Secretary, Dr Olu Agunloye, petitioned the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, over an alleged plot to force him to resign.

Similarly, the Kogi State Chairman of the party, Moses Oricha, raised the alarm that some individuals were attempting to hijack the party’s leadership structure in the state through an “unauthorised” congress.

He accused an unidentified group of attempting to hold a state congress on March 12, 2025, without official approval, insisting that the legitimate SDP leadership in the state was elected during a congress held on April 9, 2022, in line with the party’s constitution.

Defectors jostle for positions

Meanwhile, the Integrity Group of the SDP rejected a reported move to announce El-Rufai as the national leader of the party.

The group, in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Abdullahi Saleh, and Secretary, James Ettah, described the move as “mendacious, preposterous, and a big slap on the faces of our noble and respected leaders” who have worked tirelessly to build the party over the past three years.

The group condemned the “unacceptable” narrative that “a joiner of less than one week has become leader of the party.”

Sunday PUNCH reliably gathered from insiders that many people intending to join and those who had already joined the party had been negotiating for leadership positions with the current executive members of the party in their various states.

A former National Vice Chairman (North-West) of the APC, Salihu Lukman, who is involved in the defection plan to the SDP, had in a recent interview with Sunday PUNCH said the intending members of the party had requested a new leadership.

“The issue we have is for them (SDP leadership) to open the party up and agree to produce new leadership that will reflect the new setup from ward to national level. They are resisting that, which is the issue.

“It is like buying a house but being told after moving in that you can’t change anything. Even as a tenant, I should have some rights. The discussion is still going on. Let’s see how it goes,” he stated.

SDP rejects pressure

Speaking with our correspondent, Agunloye reiterated that while new members, including high-profile politicians, were free to join, the party would not hastily reshuffle its leadership to accommodate them.

“It will happen, but not now. Otherwise, you may have a convention every week or every month because people are joining—important people are joining, people whose names are known are joining, and people whose names are not known are also joining,” Agunloye said.

He emphasised that most defectors joined the SDP to secure a viable platform for elections, not necessarily to take over leadership roles.

“A convention for accommodating people into the leadership of the party is not why they joined. They joined because they wanted to win elections. Although there may be one or two people who joined to muscle down the party, that is not why the majority joined. The drive is about winning. People need a platform where what happened to them in their old party will not happen again,” he added.

Agunloye warned that mismanaging the influx of new members could lead to instability, which would be counterproductive to the party’s electoral ambitions.

He said, “The struggle for party leadership is not unexpected, but it is part of the issues we must handle properly. Otherwise, their coming will become counterproductive. Two things would have been responsible for people changing parties and rushing into another: either they were not treated well in their former party, or they joined hoping that the SDP would provide a better platform to achieve their goals. If we fail to provide that, they may leave.”

Despite internal pressure, Agunloye stated that the SDP remained open to new members and was committed to building a broad-based political movement ahead of the 2027 elections.

Also speaking, the National Vice Chairman, North-Central zone of the party, Abubakar Dogara, stated that the SDPwas not ready to hold a congress to change leadership for the newcomers.

Dogara, who is also the SDP’s Chairman in Plateau State, asked the new joiners to wait until next year before eyeing any position.

However, Dogara said the party was open to new members.

“Why are we not going to incorporate new joiners? Our doors are widely open for that. But we are not ready to hold any congress at the moment to change the leadership and allow newcomers to take positions.

“Our congress is coming early next year, around January or February. That’s when we will decide on leadership positions. Once the congress comes, they can contest and be part of the executive if they so wish,” he added.



https://punchng.com/sdp-leaders-under-pressure-as-defectors-scramble-for-top-seats/