With just 4 months to the November 11th governorship election in Imo State, no less than 7,331 officials of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the state have resigned their positions and dumped the party.
The decision came in their last meeting of the former party’s State Working Committee (SWC) held Sunday in Owerri where the people unanimously resolved to pull out the party.
Briefing newsmen shortly after the meeting, the erstwhile Secretary of the SDP in Imo, Mr Ogbonna Alozie, disclosed that all the 24 state officials of the party, 594 Local Government Officials and 6,710 officials at the ward level resigned their position and membership of the party
The resignation is coming two days after the Party’s Chairman in Imo, Prince Marshal Okaforanyanwu also announced his resignation from the position and the party.
Alozie said the decision was reached by the officials who unanimously agreed to show their solidarity to Okaforanyanwu, whom he said had been “marginalized and unfairly treated by the party’s national leadership despite his sacrifices to keep the party afloat in the state”.
Speaking, the Party’s Orlu Zonal Chairman, Mr Emmanuel Nwanegbo, said that a candidate for the November 11 governorship election in Imo was imposed on members of the party by its national leadership contrary to the party’s extant laws which provide for open contest.
He said that SDP had 3 vibrant persons who wanted to fly the flag of the party, but regretted how the national chairman frustrated them by not giving them space until the date of substitution elapsed.
Nwanegbo pointed out how the national chairman tricked the party in the state by bringing in a party national officer as placeholder and also as the party Governorship candidate against the resolution of the members.
He said that the officials vehemently rejected the imposition describing it as a plot to render them irrelevant in a party they had worked hard to build.
Also speaking, the Owerri Zonal Secretary of the party, Mr Prince Amadi, said that the officials were not carried along by the party’s national leadership during the 2023 General Elections.
He alleged sabotage of efforts by the officials to grow the party adding that imposition of candidates for elective positions without due process was unknown to the party’s laws.
He condemned the uncaring attitude of the national leadership of the party towards the state despite the dogged effort of the former state chairman, Prince Marshal Okaforanyanwu, to build the party from scratch.
He said: “during the last state assembly election in the state, the party had 13 candidates who paid for their forms and whose money was remitted to the national office yet without any money given for the running of the party in the state”.
He said: “ The national leadership has taken us for a ride long enough, from intolerable imposition to paying a deaf ear to our concerns. We refuse to be intimidated. Imo must be liberated”.
Also, the Party’s Chairmen in Nkwerre, Njabs, Aboh Mbaise and Ohaji-Egbema council areas, Ikechukwu Okoma, Dickson Ejiofor, Ugochukwu Nneji and Gerald Uba said they were exiting with no less than 3,000 registered members in each LGA.
They however insisted not to be relegated to irrelevance adding that their next move would be made public after due consultations.
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