SDP candidate withdraws case against Governor from Supreme Court

The Supreme Court had fixed April 7, 2017 to rule on the case
Chief David Kente, the Social Democratic Party candidate in the 2015 governorship election in Taraba State, has withdrawn the suit he instituted against Governor David Ishaku.


In the suit, Kente, who had contested the Peoples Democratic Party ticket with Ishaku, challenged his (Ishaku)’s emergence as the PDP candidate in the primary elections.
After losing the PDP ticket, Kente defected to the SDP, where he eventually lost the secondary election to Ishaku.

Kente said: “I have ordered my lawyers to withdraw the suit I instituted against Governor Darius Ishaku.”
Kente disclosed that his decision to withdraw the case was in the “overall interest of Taraba State”.

He said: “I decided to challenge the PDP governorship primaries because I was not fairly treated when I aspired for the party’s ticket.”
Kente said that he was miffed by allegations that he was “settled” by a retired Army General to step down for Ishaku after the primary elections, which he alleged were not fair.

He said: “It was to prove that I was not “settled” to step down that I defected to the SDP to contest the governorship election, and further proceeded to challenge the primaries in the court.

“I want to tell you today that after pursuing my case to the Supreme Court, I have decided to withdraw it in the interest of Taraba State.”
He regretted that some people had fed fat on the case “at the expense of Taraba tax payers”, and alleged that the case was being used as a conduit pipe to siphon government resources.

Kente said that he voluntarily withdrew the case on his own volition.
He said: “No one has pressurised me to withdraw the case. I took the decision on my own.”

The Supreme Court had fixed April 7, 2017 to rule on the case in which Kente had led statutory delegates of the PDP to challenge the primaries that took place in November 2014.