The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division on Thursday declared the former governor of Cross River state, Donald Duke as the authentic flagbearer of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the forthcoming general elections.
The panel of Justices of the appellate court heard the appeal brought before the court by Duke also set aside the December 14, 2018, Judgement of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory which upturned the election of the former governor as SDP’s presidential candidate at its national convention held on the 6th of October last year and declared Jerry Gana instead.
The panel of Justices, presided over by Justice Adamu Jauro, held in a unanimous judgment that Donald Duke is the SDP presidential candidate.
The Court said that there is nowhere in the constitution that says an aspirant from certain states can not aspire to be the president of the country and added that if there is anyone to be declared winner in the party’s primary elections, that person must be the one that the people voted for at the Party National Convention.
The appellate court had, on January 15 reserved judgment in the appeal, after parties in the appeal adopted their submissions and written addresses on the matter.
The appellate court had on December 31, 2018, ordered service of the court processes on the respondents through substituted means.
Duke had approached the Court of Appeal to reverse the decision of the lower court which held that he was not the authentic candidate of the SDP for the 2019 presidential election having emerged from a process said to be contrary to the party’s provision for the primary election.
During the hearing of the appeal earlier, the appellant’s counsel, Eyitayo Jegede (SAN) who informed the panel that the court processes have been served on the respondents, prayed for an abridgement of time due to the closeness of the election scheduled for February 16, 2019.
On his part, counsel to the first respondent (Jerry Ghana), Mustapha Ibrahim, who admitted service of the process on the first defendant however requested for time to reply to the motion stating that he was standing in for his principal who was unavoidably absence in court.
However, presiding Judge, Justice Adamu Jauro, having established the urgency of the appeal gave the first respondent eight days to reply to the appellant’s brief while he ordered the appellant to reply within three days and adjourned till January 15, 2019, for hearing of the substantive suit filed by Donald Duke.
Gana had in his suit filed at the lower court challenged the emergence of Duke as the presidential flagbearer of the SDP in the 2019 general elections on the grounds that it contravened the party’s principle of zoning.
Delivering judgment on Gana’s suit, Justice Hussein Baba-Yusuf of an Abuja High Court had on December 15, 2018, sacked Duke as Presidential candidate of the SDP.
The judge held that the emergence of the former governor of Cross River State as Presidential candidate violated the zoning and rotation formula provided in section 15(3) of the party’s constitution.
He subsequently declared Jerry Gana as the authentic presidential candidate of the party ahead of the 2019 elections.
