The chairman of the Social Democratic Party, Sadiq Umar Abubakar, has disclosed details of the meeting held by the National Working Committee of the opposition party and the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission, led by its chairman, Joash Amupitan, on Monday.
Speaking with journalists after the meeting, Abubakar said the meeting was fruitful, noting that the party is waiting for INEC’s decision.
He noted that the meeting came at the instance of the party seeking an alternative resolution to its crisis.
Abubakar reiterated that the SDP NWC, led by him, was duly elected and ratified by the party’s recent Bauchi Convention.
According to him, the party’s former chairman, Shehu Musa Gabam, has been legally suspended from the party since March 9th, 2026.
He faulted the judgment that relied upon INEC to list Gabam as the opposition party’s chairman.
“We are here for the respect we have for INEC; that is why we are here, to honour the invitation when they want to have an alternative resolution,”he stated.
However, he said he was shocked that the INEC chairman mentioned that he had not been seeing our correspondence on the suspension of Gabam to the electoral body.
“And we are so surprised that the chairman is telling the party that most of our correspondence from the suspension expulsion of 24th June 2025 up to the other issue that happened with the expansion of government and soul, INEC chairman is saying that we did not communicate to you to our surprise, and just me, all those did not see that he did not see them, but we have copies, actually acknowledged copies from INEC, which the national secretary from his report attached all the copies to INEC for him to see them now, so we are waiting to hear from them,” he stated.
This comes amid a leadership crisis that struck the party after the electoral body listed Shehu Gabam as SDP chairman contrary to the decision of the opposition party’s members at its recent national convention.
DAILY POST reports Abubakar emerged as the chairman of SDP at the party’s convention in Bauchi state.