ADC Pulls Legal Powers to Abuja, Warns State Chapters Off Court Matters
The African Democratic Congress has moved to tighten its grip on legal representation, barring all state chapters and officials from handling any court matters on the party’s behalf and directing that every legal process be channelled to its National Headquarters in Abuja. The decision reflects growing unease within the opposition party over how litigation touching its affairs is being managed at the sub-national level.
According to a statement issued on Tuesday by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Hon. Bolaji Abdullahi, the directive followed reports that court documents were being served on state offices, with lawyers allegedly engaged to represent the party without the knowledge or clearance of its National Legal Adviser. The ADC maintained that such a practice runs contrary to its internal rules, insisting that only the National Legal Adviser is empowered under the party’s constitution to retain legal practitioners, issue instructions, file court processes or appear for the party in any proceedings.
Flowing from that position, the party instructed all state chapters, state legal advisers, executive committee members and other officials not to receive, acknowledge or take custody of court documents served through state offices. Such processes, it said, must instead be referred without delay to the National Legal Adviser at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja. Where documents are served by substituted means in line with a court order, the ADC directed that they be transmitted electronically to the National Legal Adviser immediately, leaving no room for delay or mishandling at the state level.
The party went further to attach consequences to any breach. It warned that any state official or chapter that engages lawyers or takes up legal matters without express written approval from the National Legal Adviser would face disciplinary action under the party’s constitution. All state chapters were directed to circulate the instruction to relevant officers and members for immediate compliance.
The move fits into a wider pattern that has defined the ADC since it emerged as the arrowhead of a broad opposition realignment ahead of the 2027 general election. Once a relatively minor party on Nigeria’s crowded political register, the ADC was adopted in July 2025 as the platform for a coalition drawing in prominent figures from across the country’s major parties, a development that transformed it into one of the most closely watched political vehicles in the current cycle. That sudden prominence has come with intense legal scrutiny, including disputes over its leadership structure and control of its machinery, making centralised command of its litigation a matter of real strategic weight.
For opposition parties in Nigeria, control of internal legal processes has repeatedly proved decisive. History offers a cautionary backdrop. The Peoples Democratic Party spent years locked in leadership and court battles that drained its resources and weakened its standing, while intra-party litigation has upended candidate lists and toppled election victories at various levels over the past decade. Courts have, on several occasions, nullified electoral outcomes on the strength of unresolved internal party disputes, underscoring why parties increasingly treat legal coordination as a survival tool rather than a mere administrative formality.
By insisting that all processes pass through a single office, the ADC appears intent on avoiding the kind of conflicting representation and procedural missteps that have hobbled other parties, particularly conflicting court filings and default judgments arising from documents served on unauthorised officials. With the 2027 contest drawing nearer and legal skirmishes expected to intensify, the party’s leadership is signalling that it wants a firm, unified hand on every matter that reaches the courtroom.