The Tamale High Court has given the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) the green light to hold a parliamentary primary in the Bunkrugu Constituency.

The Court Wednesday presided over by his Lordship Charles Gyamfi upheld the decision by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the NDC to disqualify parliamentary aspirant for Bunkrugu, Nanburr Berrick. 

The court also awarded a cost of GH¢20,000 against Mr Berrick, the plaintiff. 

The former Member of Parliament (MP) in 2015 filed a writ to challenge his disqualification from the NDC parliamentary primary for the constituency. As a result, NDC was unable to put up a candidate for the constituency.

However, this morning's judgement means the NDC can go ahead to hold a primary in the Constituency to pick a candidate for the November 7 polls.

The NDC says it will move quickly to hold the primaries to pick a candidate, but the plaintiff's campaign manager, Kantam Linlaar says his boss is considering either appealing against the court ruling or contesting as an independent candidate.

He said when we applied for the injunction the judge in his ruling was very clear that the NDC had violated its own constitution in the manner in which the party disqualified Lanburr Berrick.

However, he said, "We are not happy and what the people of Bunkrugu want is for Berrick to be their MP and whichever way we will use to get to parliament is open to us."

Regarding a possible disqualification from the party, once Berrick  goes independent, Mr Linlaar said, “where we are now, I think Berrick has nothing to loose because the NDC has shown that they are not interested in capturing the seat from the New Patriotic Party (NPP)."

He added that traditionally, the Bunkrugu seat has been won by the NDC since 1992 but such behaviors like that meted out to Berrick made the party lose the seat in 2012.

“In our attempt to capture this seat, this raw deal has been handed to us. The NDC can have their constituency but the people of Bunkrugu ultimately want honorable Berrick to represent them in parliament,” Linlaar said.

However, NDC’s Regional Elections Manager, Tanko Rashid, said the party would institute a disciplinary decision against Mr Berrick after accessing the damage caused to the party.

He said the court awarded GH¢20,000 after the plaintiff came pleading because the party was demanding GH¢100,000.

“We know we are interested in the money but we are sending signals to such people who are bent on disturbing the party and its structures who think their parochial interest should over ride the supreme interest of the party,” Mr Rashid said.

He said people should know the party they have agreed to follow has rules and structures and they must respect it.

Rashid Tanko is happy that NEC’s decision has been upheld which will make people respect the party structure, decisions and leadership.