Gabam remains expelled, Gombe authentic national chairman -SDP

The Social Democratic Party SDP has reaffirmed that its former national chairman, Shehu Gabam, remains expelled, insisting that Dr Umar Sadiq Gombe is the legitimate national chairman of the party.

The SDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Araba Rufus Aiyenigba, said this on Thursday in a statement in Abuja.

According to him, the clarification becomes necessary following the confusion over the interpretation of recent Court of Appeal rulings linked to the party’s Ekiti State governorship primary held on August 8, 2025.

The party said Gabam was deliberately distorting the court pronouncements to mislead the public and revive his political standing.

“The national leadership of the SDP is mindful that a lie deliberately crafted and vigorously pushed into the public space, without being challenged and countered with superior facts, could pass for truth, and the misinformation becomes normalised and mislead the public.

“Conscious of the foregoing, and having thoroughly and carefully perused the two recent judgments delivered by the Appeal Court on the matter of the 8th August 2025 SDP Ekiti Governorship primary election in doing its duty, the SDP national leadership hereby sets the record straight.

“By telling the public that the expelled National Chairman, Alhaji Shehu Musa Gabam, who has become part of our documented past, is in a delusional state of mind, considering that the reality has dawned on him that his hope of saving his political career via a return to his former position in the party has evaporated.

“It is, therefore, necessary for us to put the records straight. The basic points for the records are: No Court has removed Prof Sadiq Umar Abubakar Gombe as the National Chairman of Social Democratic Party. He is the legitimate Chairman of the SDP as affirmed by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Party.

“There are no court cases about leadership issues in SDP but court cases about recent primaries in Ekiti and Osun States relating to by aspirants with grievances with the processes.

“In the suit CA/ABJ/CV/126/2026 filed by aggrieved Ekiti SDP Aspirant, Mr. Babatunde Tosin Fayemi, whose judgment was delivered by Justice Eberechi Suzzette Nyesom-Wike at the Court of Appeal on 27 March 2026, and released yesterday, it was entirely about Ekiti Primaries and not about SDP leadership.

“The former Chairman, Shehu Musa Gabam, is not part of the suit and was not mentioned once in the suit or in the judgment. Nowhere in the judgment was the expelled Chairman referred to as SDP Chairman. What the judgment simply stated is that the Trial Court ought not to have delved into leadership matter in a pre-election matter,” Aiyenigba said.

He also said that the suit in question was about the recently concluded Ekiti State Governorship primary election, to which Alhaji Shehu Gabam is a total stranger and that Gabam’s later application to join the suit was dismissed by the court.

The SDP’s spokesman said that apart from dismissing the cases of the plaintiffs, the court held, that the courts have no jurisdiction to determine the leadership of political parties and that leadership matter of a political party is an internal affair of the party, and no Court of law has jurisdiction over it.

He said, “As a matter of fact, Shehu Musa Gabam is no longer a member of the Social Democratic Party, having been duly expelled from the SDP, and the expulsion was formally ratified by the NEC of the party on March 9, 2026, having being earlier suspended on 24 June 2025, for gross financial misappropriation and malfeasance, investigated by a duly constituted Panel of Enquiry, and found guilty and reported to the Police.

“He was later expelled from the Party on 23 October 2025, and his expulsion was ratified by the Party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) at its meeting of 9 March 2026, which was monitored by INEC Team.

“Dr. Sadiq Umar Abubakar Gombe continues in office as National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party. The SDP refuses to be distracted and is focused on the noble goal of producing credible candidates who can win the 2027 general elections and help to change the fortunes of the country by engendering national transformation and making life truly better for the people.

“Towards achieving the foregoing goal, we are presently strengthening our structures, mobilizing members of the party across the country through our ongoing e-registration, and receiving new members to our fold, while collaborating with reputable national political groups, socio-cultural organisations, and social democratic elements to rescue the nation.”