Court Rejects Case Against Donald Duke Over PRP Ticket

(Donald Duke. Photo by Nation News)

A Federal High Court in Abuja has thrown out a suit seeking to cancel the nomination of former Cross River State governor Donald Duke as the presidential candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party.

Justice Mohammed Umar gave the judgment on Wednesday.

The suit was filed by Engr. Yakubu Mohammed, an aggrieved presidential aspirant of the party.

The judge said the suit was statute barred.

As a pre election case, it was filed on June 10, which is 16 days after the results of the May 25 primary were made public.

The Constitution allows only 14 days.

Mohammed argued that the count should start from June 6, when the party appeal committee wrote to tell him his appeal had been rejected, but the judge did not accept this.

He said the late filing robbed the court of the power to hear the case.

The judge still went on to look at the case on its merit and dismissed it because Mohammed failed to prove his claims.

Mohammed had argued that Duke was not a registered member of the party when it sent its membership register to INEC on May 4.

The judge said party membership is an internal matter of a political party and the court cannot rule on it.

Mohammed also said Duke broke party guidelines by not showing up in person for screening at the national secretariat.

The judge said he never put the guidelines before the court as required.

He also rejected the claim of over voting in Bauchi, Kwara and Gombe, saying it was not proved as the law demands.

Mohammed had asked the court to declare Duke ineligible, cancel the results from Bauchi, Gombe and Kwara, declare himself the party's candidate, and stop INEC from recognising Duke as the flagbearer.