37 SDP Chairmen reject Jerry Gana, insists on Duke

The 37 state party chairmen of the Social Democratic Party, including that of the Federal Capital Territory, have rejected the Justice Hussein Baba-Yusuf-led court order which declared Prof. Jerry Gana as the presidential candidate of the party.

An FCT High Court had on Friday declared Gana the winner of the presidential primary election of the SDP conducted on October 6 over alleged violation of the party’s constitution.

Specifically, the court ruled that the SDP’s National Chairman, Chief Olu Falae, and the presidential candidate, Mr Donald Duke, are from the southern part of the country.

Duke had won the October 6 primary with 812 votes, while Gana polled 611, but the former Minister of Information had approached the court to declare him winner on the grounds of zoning and rotation formula contained in the party’s constitution.

But the forum, in a statement jointly issued on Saturday by its Chairman, Oke Idawene, and the Secretary, Abubakar Dogara, insisted that Duke remained the presidential candidate of the party for the 2019 election.

The chairmen said the court’s ruling was an act of gross injustice, adding that it would not see the light of the day.