Crisis hit SDP as over 7,000 officials resign in Imo

No less than 7,331 officials of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Imo have resigned their positions and exited the party.

The erstwhile secretary of SDP in Imo, Mr Ogbonna Alozie, disclosed this while briefing newsmen shortly after the party’s State Working Committee (SWC) meeting in Owerri, the capital of Imo State, on Sunday.

Newspot reports that the resignation comes two days after the party’s chairman in the state, Prince Marshal Okaforanyanwu, also announced his resignation from the position and the party.

All 24 state officials of the party, 594 local government officials, and 6,710 officials at the ward level resigned from their positions and memberships in 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 “marginalised and unfairly treated by the party’s national leadership despite his sacrifices to keep the party afloat in the state.”

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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 an open contest.

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, Prince Amadi, said that the officials were not carried along by the party’s national leadership during the 2023 general elections.

“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,” he said.

The party’s chairmen in Nkwerre, Aboh Mbaise, and Ohaji-Egbema council areas, respectively Dickson Ejiofor, Okechukwu Nneji, and Gerald Uba, also said they have exited with no less than 3,000 registered members in each LGA.