By Dare Akogun

AS part of its preparations for the 2023 general elections, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Kwara State, on Tuesday elected new executives at the ward, local government and state levels.

The congress was presided over by an official from the national secretariat of the party, Joseph Abu, and witnessed by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials led by Shehu Abubakar, Head, Election and Party Monitoring.

Azeez Afolabi emerged as Chairman through voice votes to reaffirm the consensus arrangement, while Reuben Akano was returned unopposed as Deputy Chairman.

The post of Secretary went to Isiaka Agboji, while Usman Amuda became the Auditor, S. Ibrahim, Publicity Secretary, L. Mustapha, Legal Adviser, and Rahamat Afolabi, Women Speaker.

Speaking after the congress, chairman of the congress committee Joseph Abu urged the new executives from the ward to state levels to work hard to ensure victory for the party in the 2023 general elections.

While commending the delegates for their peaceful conduct, Abu appealed to them to remain steadfast and work for the success of the party in their respective local government areas.

Speaking on behalf the excos the new party chairman Azeez Afolabi promised to work with other state executives to move the party forward.

“I have wholeheartedly accepted the onerous responsibility of the state party chairmanship post entrusted on me by you all with all sense of humility and promise that I will be firm and fair to all.

“Today, I humbly stand before you, with a mind filled with both sadness and joy.

“Sadness in the sense that it was not easy to always be in the trenches to fight bad governance.

“I also feel joyous for the fact that some of our leaders intuitively saw the ominous signs and instantly embarked on radio programmes that have now served as a harbinger of hope for us in our remaining political journey.

“The same obnoxious situation has led to the mass exodus from APC to SDP at the state level,” he said.

Afolabi assured party members that he would operate an open-door policy and be fair to all members in the state.

“Transparency, equity, fairness and accountability will be observed in administering the affairs of our party,” he added.

It would be recalled a faction of the APC loyal to the minister of information and culture Lai Mohammed defected to the party early this month.