Maj. Hamza Al-Mustapha, the former chief security officer to Nigeria’s late military ruler, Gen. Sani Abacha, has thrown his weight behind the faction of the Social Democratic Party led by former national chairman Shehu Gabam, marking a significant shift in the party’s increasingly bitter leadership crisis.
Al-Mustapha’s decision represents a break with the camp of the SDP’s 2023 presidential candidate, Adewole Adebayo, with whom he had been closely aligned until recent months. Alongside former information minister Labaran Maku, the retired army officer had been regarded as one of the most prominent figures supporting the rival faction led by Prof Sadiq Umar.
But while Maku has since defected to the Labour Party and secured nomination forms to contest the Nasarawa North senatorial seat, Al-Mustapha has now publicly aligned himself with Gabam, the politician at the centre of a protracted struggle over control of the opposition party.
His new allegiance became apparent when he attended a national convention organised by Gabam’s supporters at Abuja’s International Conference Centre, a gathering widely viewed as a show of strength by the embattled former chairman.
Speaking on the sidelines of the event, Al-Mustapha said he had initially accepted some of the allegations levelled against Gabam but changed his position after conducting what he described as his own investigations.
“We were made to believe at one time that the chairman of the party, Musa Shehu Gabam, was what he was painted with,” he said. “But upon investigations, as committed friends, we discovered otherwise. That act of mischief is so shameful.”
In remarks that appeared directed at Gabam’s critics, he accused unnamed opponents of orchestrating a campaign to discredit the former chairman.
“They dug a ditch yesterday, thinking he fell into it. But innocent as he was, he has remained sincere, honest, dogmatic and resilient. Today, we are very proud of him,” Al-Mustapha said.
The former military officer suggested that his own experience of public scrutiny and legal battles had influenced his decision to support Gabam.
“I should have died several years ago. I was persecuted and lied against,” he said. “But as God Almighty would have it, with time and truth, I am standing here alive.”
He also used the occasion to issue a broader appeal to young Nigerians, urging them to look beyond partisan loyalties and focus on the country’s future.
“We should begin to talk tough, because our country has been ruined,” he said. “Before you can build what has been ruined, you definitely have to be prepared to work harder.”
Al-Mustapha’s intervention is the latest development in a leadership dispute that has left the SDP divided between competing centres of authority, with rival factions claiming legitimacy through court rulings, party organs and engagements with the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The conflict intensified in October 2025 when Gabam, alongside the party’s national secretary, Olu Agunloye, and national auditor, Clarkson Nnadi, was expelled by a faction of the National Working Committee over allegations of misconduct and financial impropriety.
Gabam and his supporters dismissed the expulsion as unlawful, insisting that he remained the party’s legitimate national chairman.
The struggle for control escalated further last month when Gabam reportedly arrived at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja accompanied by armed police officers in an attempt to reassert authority over the organisation. The move triggered outrage from rival factions and deepened concerns about the increasingly acrimonious nature of the dispute.
With defections, shifting alliances and rival claims to legitimacy continuing to reshape the party’s internal landscape, the SDP enters the run-up to the 2027 elections facing mounting questions over whether it can resolve its divisions before they inflict lasting political damage.
