{"id":128005,"date":"2026-06-29T21:28:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T20:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=128005"},"modified":"2026-06-29T21:28:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T20:28:39","slug":"prp-court-adjourns-suit-challenging-donald-dukes-prp-presidential-nomination-to-july-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/prp-court-adjourns-suit-challenging-donald-dukes-prp-presidential-nomination-to-july-7\/","title":{"rendered":"PRP: Court Adjourns Suit Challenging Donald Duke\u2019s PRP Presidential Nomination to July 7"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>By John Azu<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed July 7, 2026 for hearing in a suit challenging the emergence of former Cross River State Governor, Donald Duke, as the presidential candidate of the People\u2019s Redemption Party (PRP) for the 2027 general election.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Justice Mohammed Umar adjourned the matter on Monday after receiving an update on the status of the case, which had earlier been postponed to allow for substituted service of court processes on Duke.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">At the resumed hearing, counsel to the plaintiff, Yakubu Kingsley, Felix Ipoga, informed the court that he would withdraw the application for substituted service after Duke responded to the suit by filing a preliminary objection.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The suit, marked\u00a0<strong>FHC\/ABJ\/CS\/1234\/2026<\/strong>, was instituted by Kingsley against the PRP, Duke and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the first, second and third defendants, respectively.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In the originating summons filed on June 10 by his counsel, D.A. Sulyman, Kingsley asked the court to determine whether Duke was validly returned as the party&#8217;s presidential candidate following the PRP primary election held on May 25, with the result announced on May 26.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The plaintiff argued that Duke was not a registered member of the party at the time the PRP submitted its membership register to INEC on May 4, rendering him ineligible to contest the primary.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Kingsley also challenged the credibility of the primary election, alleging incidents of over-voting in several states.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to the suit, Bauchi State recorded 760 votes despite the party having only 593 registered members, while Gombe State recorded 1,431 votes against a membership strength of 348. In Kwara State, the plaintiff alleged that 82 votes were recorded even though the party had only 55 registered members.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He further contended that Duke should not have been cleared to contest the primary because he allegedly failed to appear physically for screening at the party&#8217;s national secretariat in Abuja, contrary to the party&#8217;s guidelines.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Kingsley is asking the court to declare Duke ineligible to participate in the presidential primary, nullify the results from Bauchi, Gombe and Kwara states over the alleged over-voting, and declare him the lawful presidential candidate of the PRP for the 2027 election.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He is also seeking an order directing INEC not to recognise Duke as the party&#8217;s presidential candidate, remove his name from its records and recognise Kingsley as the valid PRP flag bearer.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The PRP had screened and cleared three presidential aspirants\u2014Duke, Dr. Nnaoke Ufere and Kingsley\u2014before conducting its primary election. However, the party&#8217;s National Working Committee subsequently affirmed Duke as its presidential candidate following a review by the party&#8217;s Primary Election Appeal Committee.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By John Azu A Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed July 7, 2026 for hearing in a suit challenging the emergence of former Cross River State Governor, Donald Duke,&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":128006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - 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