Kwara APC Crisis: Leading Governorship Aspirant Dumps Party for SDP

Hammed Shittu in Ilorin

The simmering crisis in the Kwara State All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday deepened as one of the frontline governorship aspirants of the party in the 2019 general election, Alhaji Hakeem Lawal, formally dumped the party for Social Democratic Party (SDP).

Lawal, who is the scion of the late former Governor of the state, late Alhaji Muhammed Alabi Lawal’s family, said: “The APC is dead in Kwara State as far as next general election is concerned.”

Accompanied by over 4, 000 party members and political structures of his late  father, Lawal officially joined the SDP in his Idi-Ape ancestral home in Ilorin East Local Government Area of the state.

Speaking with journalists in Ilorin shortly after formally registering with the party, Lawal said: “I visited my ancestral home to pay homage to my people. The welcome from the elders, women, and the young folks is a genuine love. I pray I’m able to repay their sincere love.

“I’ve consulted widely within and outside our structure across the 16 local government areas; the consensus was that the SDP is the best for us, our group and for the actualisation of our mission and vision for the state.

“Thus, I have listened to the yearnings of my people, and registered as a member of the SDP in Kwara State.

 “I was accompanied by the chairman of SDP in Ilorin East alongside some members of the local government executives, and all the 12 SDP ward chairmen in Ilorin East.”

He, however, said the SDP would wrest power from the APC in the next elections in the state.