Court boots Donald Duke out of Presidential race in favour of Jerry Gana
A Federal High Court sitting at Abuja, FCT has nullified the candidacy of Donald Duke, the former governor of Cross River state as the presidential candidate of Social Democratic party in favour of Jerry Gana, the former minister of information.
Donald Duke who reportedly emerged winner of the SDP presidential primaries conducted on October 6, 2018 with a total vote of 812 against Gana’s 611 votes, is said to have been booted out of the race through a court ruling.
This is just coming in the same week that Duke’s running mate, Dr Mohammed Junaid bowed out of the race.
Jerry Gana had approached the court to seek redress to the alleged anomalies in the party’s primary election which gave Donald Duke an unfair advantage against him since both the party chairman and Duke were both from the south.
He claimed that the party had erroneously declared Duke as the winner, which contravened the party’s zoning formula.
He further sought that Duke’s candidacy be nullified with a perpetual injunction that will forbid him from parading himself as the presidential candidate of SDP.
Presiding over the case, Hussein Baba-Yusuf sustained Gana’s request in a ruling that declared Jerry Gana as the bonafide presidential candidate of the party and ordered SDP to forward his name to INEC for regularization.
“The law has crystallised that political parties should abide by the regulations which they have made by themselves. In this instance, the party’s Chairman, Chief Olu Falae, is from the South and Duke is from the South too; the law is clear; there is nothing to write in-between,” the judge said.
He concluded that Jerry Gana provided enough evidence to sway the judgement in his favour.
