The independent National Electoral Commission, INEC have revealed why it exempted the name of the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP.
Revealing the reason on channels television, the National Commissioner of INEC incharge of Voters Education Committee, Mr. Okoye Festus said the commission had received the name of Donald Duke from the party but removed it from the list it had released on Thursday.
“The name of Donald Duke was forwarded to the Independent National Electoral Commission as the candidate of the SDP for the presidential election,” Mr Okoye said.
Mr. Okoye said INEC had received a court order which did not recognize the former Cross-River state Governor, Duke, as the presidential candidate of SDP.
“Thereafter, the Independent National Electoral Commission received a court order to the effect that all the votes that were scored by Donald Duke during the SDP primaries were wasted votes, and that the candidate of the SDP in the presidential election should be Professor Jerry Gana.”
“The court went further to direct that it is the political party itself, the SDP, that should submit the name of Jerry Gana to the Independent National Electoral Commission,” Okoye stated.
“As at the time we published the list, SDP has not forwarded the name of Jerry Gana as the presidential candidate of the party.
“So, we are waiting for the party to submit the name of Jerry Gana … that is why we removed the name of Donald Duke from the list that has been published.”
