A’Court reserves judgment in SDP Presidential ticket tussle

The Court of Appeal, Abuja division, on Tuesday, reserved judgment in the appeal challenging the decision of an Abuja High Court that declared former Information Minister, Professor Jerry Gana, the presidential candidate of Social Democratic Party (SDP) for this year presidential election. The three man panel of the Court of Appeal reserved judgment in the appeal filed by former Cross River State Governor, Donald Duke, after counsel representing parties in the suit adopted and argued their written addresses. The panel, however, said date for its judgment in the suit would be communicated to parties. Duke, who was dissatisfied with ruling of the FCT High Court which upturned his last October victory at the party primary, and he had approached the appellate court to reverse the decision. Justice Hussein Baba-Yusuf of the FCT High Court sitting in Maitama, had on December 15, 2018, sacked Duke as Presidential candidate of the SDP. Duke had won the SDP presidential primary with a total of 812 votes and was declared winner and candidate of the SDP but Gana, however, challenged the victory of Duke on the grounds that he ought not to have participated in the presidential primary of the SDP which was zoned to the Northern part of the country. Gana had in his suit urged the court to void Duke’s emergence and declare him (Gana) who hailed from the North and scored the second highest number of votes as authentic candidate of the SDP in the 2019 presidential election on the grounds that Duke’s participation contravened the party’s principle of zoning. In his judgment, Justice Baba-Yusuf agreed with Gana that the emergence of the former governor of Cross River State as Presidential candidate of the SDP violated the zoning and rotation formula provided in section 15(3) of the party’s constitution. He subsequently voided the election of Duke and declared the former Minister of Information, Jerry Gana, as the authentic presidential candidate of the party ahead of the 2019 elections. Not satisfied with the judgment, Duke through his counsel, approached the Court of Appeal in Abuja to reverse the decision of Justice Baba-Yusuf. Andrew Orolua, Abuja