SDP faction picks Senator Ikeyina as presidential candidate

A Second Republic senator from Anambra State, Ebenezer Ikeyina, has won the presidential primary election organised by a faction of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

He contested unopposed at a special national convention held in Abuja on Tuesday.

Chairman of the national convention organising committee, Mike Odunrinde, said the senator got 308 out of 311 votes cast.

The SDP is embroiled in a leadership crisis, with two groups competing for control of the party, which has turned into a legal battle.

Shonibare leads the group which claims to be the “authentic leadership” of the party, while the Shehu Gabam-led faction is recognised by the Independent  National Electoral Commission (INEC).

 

Speaking at the convention on Tuesday, chairman of SDP, Shonibare, expressed optimism that candidates fielded by the party will secure victory at all levels in the 2023 general election.

He said the party’s extraordinary convention would be open to members of the second factional group, after the court delivers judgment on the party’s leadership crisis.

“It may not be as quickly as we think but we are confident that we will prevail. And one thing I can assure you is that we will not back off,” he said.

“We will continue to extend an olive branch to the other tendencies who we know were never elected and we are particularly mindful of the fate of our candidates because I tried to tell my colleagues that we must appreciate that candidates that have come as SDP candidates, many of them may not know the division within the party.

“So, we must appreciate the challenges of candidates and we have offered an olive branch which the other tendencies, the other faction, if they had meant well for our political party, they would have accepted that olive branch, because what we proposed was to co-administer the primaries for candidates.

“But because they were focused on other issues, they were prepared to our candidates in jeopardy, because the fact that INEC has told you to go and speak to one side does not guarantee that when this matter is determined, the court will make a declaration that wherever you went to is the legitimate leadership of the party.

“There is no guarantee. So, there’s jeopardy for those who think they are collecting forms and INEC is telling them the way forward. As I said earlier, all of us know that there were a few governors who didn’t even campaign and they are governors today. Why? Because it was deemed that the processes that they went through or the leadership that they submitted to was the proper leadership of the party.

“So, we will continue to do all that we can to ensure that the candidates are not put in any more jeopardy. We will continue to do all we can to absorb them. We know that some people who are in the other faction, who are not comfortable being in that faction, get in touch with us from time to time. We know their challenges and the door is always open.

“After this event, we expect to have an extraordinary national convention, which by God’s grace will overcome the problems that delegates have had coming here this morning and which will include all the other tendencies of our party, provided they all accept the uniform constitution that all of us had fashioned together in 2018.”