Mark, Aregbesola remain ADC leaders as court rejects suit
A Federal High Court in Abuja has declined an application seeking to restrain former Senate President David Mark and ex-Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola from parading themselves as national chairman and secretary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC). The crisis stems from the recent adoption of ADC as the coalition platform for the 2027 general […]
A Federal High Court in Abuja has declined an application seeking to restrain former Senate President David Mark and ex-Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola from parading themselves as national chairman and secretary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
The crisis stems from the recent adoption of ADC as the coalition platform for the 2027 general elections at an event attended by prominent politicians, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former governors Peter Obi, Rotimi Amaechi and Nasir El-Rufai, alongside ex-ministers and lawmakers. Since then, the party has been locked in leadership disputes.
The ADC’s 2019 presidential candidate, Dumebi Kachikwu, had described the adoption as a “hostile takeover” that disregarded due process, while other aggrieved members went to court to challenge it.
A former ADC governorship candidate in Gombe State, Nafiu Bala, went further to declare himself factional national chairman. He subsequently approached the court seeking to stop the new leadership from functioning.
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However, Justice Emeka Nwite, in court documents dated September 10, rejected the application but ordered Mark, Aregbesola, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and ADC founder Ralph Nwosu to appear before the court to show cause why the application should not be granted.
The judge also directed Bala, a former deputy national chairman of the party, to put the defendants on notice before the next hearing fixed for September 15.
In his originating summons, Bala sought an interim injunction restraining Mark and Aregbesola from acting as chairman and secretary until he convenes a meeting of the National Working Committee (NWC) to fill the positions vacated by national officers who resigned in July.
Through his counsel, Michael Agber, Bala also asked the court to restrain Nwosu from “recognising, dealing with, or continuing to deal with the 2nd defendant (Mark) and 3rd defendant (Aregbesola) as national chairman and national secretary of the 1st defendant (ADC), whose purported emergence… is ultra vires the constitution of the 1st defendant (ADC).”
Party faults misleading reports
Earlier on Thursday, some media outlets (not Daily Trust) reported that the court had restrained Mark and Aregbesola, relying only on the first page of Bala’s ex parte motion, which contained his prayers.
But a full copy of the court order obtained by Daily Trust confirmed that the court in fact refused the application. The document emerged less than 24 hours after INEC formally recognised the new ADC leadership, nearly two months after a coalition of opposition parties adopted the platform and assumed control of its structures. Reacting in a statement titled “No Injunction Granted Against David Mark and Rauf Aregbesola”, ADC described the reports as “#FakeNews and last resort of desperate political jobbers.”
The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, said contrary to misleading claims, the court ruling delivered on September 4 by Justice Nwite clearly stated that the plaintiff’s application filed on September 2 was refused.
He said, having failed to stop INEC from recognising the leadership change, “political jobbers are now resorting to fake news, misrepresenting court rulings in their desperate effort to sow confusion and undermine opposition parties.”
Abdullahi urged the media and the public to be wary of fake reports allegedly engineered by destabilisation agents linked to the ruling party.
Analyst sees political merchants at work
Commenting on the dispute, political analyst and development consultant Jide Ojo described the crisis as the handiwork of “political merchants” bent on distracting the ADC coalition ahead of 2027.
He told Daily Trust that the party could face a prolonged legal battle designed to weaken it as a credible opposition platform.
“Obviously, there are political interest groups that do not want ADC to pose any serious threat in 2027. The whole motive is to distract its promoters,” Ojo said.
He recalled that the earlier plan to float the African Democratic Alliance (ADA) failed after INEC withheld recognition, forcing opposition leaders to adopt the ADC. “But when you get involved in a political hijack of this nature, there will always be competing interests,” he noted.
Ojo added that figures like Dumebi Kachikwu could also be exploiting the crisis or acting at the behest of external political forces.
“The resort to court by some people may actually be a strategy to destabilise both ADC and the wider opposition. There are political merchants who profit from such crises, and there are always sponsors willing to fund them. They often use party members as fronts to weaken the platform from within,” he said.