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The Social Democratic Party (SDP) has said that a former Governor of Cross River state, Donald Duke, duly won its presidential primary election in a keenly contested and transparent exercise and he remains the presidential candidate of the party for the 2019 general elections.
The party in statement by its acting director of media and publicity, Hon. Yemi Akinbode, was reacting to what it described as allussions to the violation of the party’s constitution by a former presidential aspirant, Prof. Jerry Gana and his campaign team regarding the processes leading to the emergence of Duke.
Akinbode, who said the attention of SDP has been drawn to the latest statement issued by Dr. Ike Neliaku, consultant to the Prof Gana’s campaign group, challenging the emergence of Duke as the presidential candidate of the party in the recently concluded primaries, added that the party frowns at the misleading statements.
“The party notes that Dr. Neliaku’s references to the SDP Constitution were premature and misplaced and frowns at recent misrepresentations by his statements that protests against South-South candidates’ participation were raised by him or by his boss before or during the screening exercise.
“This is outright false and grossly misleading. The party has also noted that as soon as Dr Neliaku, Prof Jerry Gana’s Consultant, realised that hanging on the SDP Constitution to disqualify Mr. Duke does not hold water, he resorted to attempting to discredit the entire exercise by raising fathom irregularities. This is unwarranted.
He noted that the SDP as a political party fully understands the enormity of the task ahead to “salvage Nigeria” even as he added that to move Nigeria forward “everyone matters.”
“Therefore, the party does not intend to join issues with Prof Gana, but it is important to set the records straight in the public interest and in the face of misrepresentations by Dr. Neliaku,” he pointed out.
