The National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Shehu Gabam, has debunked his purported suspension saying, it is fake and blames the new coalition for the current crisis in his party.
He made the claim in his office at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja on Tuesday. While hosting some of the party’s NWC members who were in his office.
Reacting to his purported suspension he said, I remain the national chairman of the SDP as you can see.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), tagged the request by the party’s National Secretary to hold a National Working Committee (NWC), meeting illegal since it wasn’t having my signature.
He also claimed that the crisis in the SDP were being masterminded by the coalition which wanted to destroy the party since they could not have it.
“I think we had this crisis before. It is now rearing its head. And some of us understand where it is coming from.
“Because this coalition and some of the people in the coalition who believe that at all costs, they either get SDP or create confusion around SDP. So many forces from so many fronts see SDP as very, very deadly. Or very, very strong that they cannot maneuver over.
He called on President Tinubu to call the security agencies to other so that politicians would not use them to truncate democracy
“This is very, very dangerous for our democracy. Anytime we have leaders that don’t want to accommodate a dissenting voice, then the country is gone. Democracy will disappear.
We hope and I pray the president and commander-in-chief will not allow this kind of anarchy to continue. He will call people to order. Security agencies that somehow remotely are being used to support this kind of thing.
They are not doing disservice to me. They are not doing disservice to this party. It’s a disservice to the country.
He also noted that they who are accusing him of financial misappropriation should remember that they’re the one ones who raise memos and that all their names are the party’s account statement.
“And I’m sure by the time we submit the complete printout of our account from the banks to the security agencies, they will see everything. They will see everyone that money has gone into his account. Everyone. All the NWC members. It has not excluded anybody.”
“He was once the chairman of the party. He should have also accounted for his own tenure when he was chairman of the party. I’m ready to account for my tenure any minute, any time.” he added
He also stated that this crisis was long overdue and that they have been expecting it.
“We expected this crisis for quite a while. First, we’ve been waiting for them to expose all their game plan, before we respond to it. Happily enough, they have officially exposed themselves today.
“And I’m sure Nigerians will get to know them, who are anti-democratic forces, who are conniving to disrupt political institutions, for whatever motivation. But I want to assure you that we are on.
“The letter you are talking about, they used a legal firm, to communicate to the INEC. Which is a complete violation of the process of political party in terms of communication with INEC.
“And if you look at the INEC letters, it specifies that any decision has to be jointly signed by the national chairman and national secretary. My signature is an authority signature. By our constitution, the national chairman is the national leader of the party and Chief executive of the party.