Forum of SDP State Party Chairmen rejects Abuja Court’s ruling which sacked Donald Duke as the candidate of the party.
The forum of the 36 state chairmen of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has rejected the Justice Hussain-Yusuf led- Court Order, which declared Professor Jerry Gana as the Presidential Candidate of the Party, as against the duly nominated Standard bearer of the SDP, the two-term former governor of Cross River State, Mr. Donald Duke.
In a statement made available to journalists today by the Forum’s Chairman; Hon. Oke Idawene and Secretary Abubakar Dogara, the forum said we wish to assure our teeming party followers and faithful that the court’s ruling is an act of gross injustice unconstitutional, and null and void, and as a result shall not see the light of the day. The statement said further, “the Party shall abide by the unanimous decision taken by the party’s delegates and the mandates of the 36 State Chapters and the FCT when they convincingly and overwhelmingly voted for Mr. Donald Duke in the October 6th October 2018 national presidential primaries of the Party.
That mandate given to Donald Duke as the party’s presidential candidate is sacred, supreme and so remained sacrosanct as the will and ultimate decision of party members and leadership which no court can abort.
The Forum said it will use all available legal and judicial process to protect its mandate and ensure that the will of the people prevails.
” We wish to use this medium to assure the general public, especially party members to remain calm and steadfast in their support and goodwill for the party and its presidential candidate towards the actualization of the vision of the Party to rescue Nigeria through the 2019 General elections.
The statement also said “The SDP is working within the ambiance of the law to vacate the order of the Abuja court where Prof Gana is trying to pervert and arrest justice through his unlawful claims.
Against this backdrop, our legal team has filed an appeal against the order of the High Court at the Appeal court in Abuja.
Therefore, we want to appeal to all party members across the country to continue with their party activities and campaigns with utmost decorum, decency and orderliness.
We shall communicate to all our members, details of our campAign programmes in the days ahead.
Signed
Hon. Oke Idawene
Chairman Forum SDP Chairmen
Hon. Abubakar Dogara
Sec General Forum of SDP Chairmen
LIE, I say BIG LIE, how can Hon. Oke and Dogara come up to say that the 36 SDP state chairmen with the FCT are against the judgement of the Federal High Court in Abuja? When was a meeting summoned,? where was the meeting held? And where is the paper we all signed? or better still who and how many chairmen endorsed the motion? Now if any of such thing happened, we are not aware and many of the state chairmen are not aware either. So how can the two of you speak for us on this matter without our consent? I guess our Brains are not in your Heads neither is our tongues in your mouths. If you wanted to speak for us on this matter, you should have done that a longtime ago with the consent of all the SDP State chairmen, after fighting for our Delegates money and so on. I for one and many other state chairmen who knows their right says NO to your Press release, until the right things is done. Remember we are not Political Donkeys, that from the 6th of October 2018 after the National Convention until now, nothing have been said about our Delegates money and other entitlements at state party levels, we have received nothing from anybody so we are not obliged to lay our allegiance to a particular Candidate who cares less about his electorates plight and welfare. So please just let the “SLEEPING DOG LIE”. Thank you. -Hon. Isaac B. Brown (On behalf of those chairmen who were not invited to that meeting)