ADC Vows Candidates Are Safe Despite Adverse Appeal Court Verdict
The African Democratic Congress moved quickly on Monday to calm anxiety within its ranks, declaring that a fresh Court of Appeal judgment on its internal congresses carries no consequence for the candidates it has fielded through direct primaries. The reassurance came only hours after the appellate court in Abuja handed the party a setback that has once again exposed the fault lines running through Nigeria’s leading opposition platform.
In a split decision of two to one, the Court of Appeal affirmed an earlier Federal High Court order restraining the Independent National Electoral Commission from recognising or taking part in any state congresses organised by committees set up by the Senator David Mark led caretaker leadership. The three member panel, in a lead verdict delivered by Justice Okon Abang and supported by Justice Donatus Okorowo, said it found no reason to disturb the restraining order issued on April 29 by trial Justice Joyce Abdulmalik. The presiding Justice, Abba Mohammed, dissented, holding that the trial court erred in assuming jurisdiction over what he considered the internal affairs of a political party.
The panel went further, describing the congresses and national convention conducted by the Mark led leadership as a nullity, on the ground that they were held in disobedience of a subsisting order the high court made on April 14. It dismissed the party’s appeal, marked CA/ABJ/CV/608/2026, and awarded a cost of ten million naira against the ADC.
The dispute stems from a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/581/2026, filed by seven aggrieved state chairmen, among them Don Norman Obinna, Johnny Tovie Derek, Obah Ehigiator and Samuel Pam Gyang, who sued on behalf of all state chairmen and state executive committees. They argued that the caretaker committee lacked the constitutional authority to appoint fresh committees for state congresses, insisting that only duly elected organs recognised under the party’s constitution could perform that role. Listed as defendants were the ADC, Mark, Patricia Akwashiki, Bolaji Abdullahi, Rauf Aregbesola, Oserheimen Osunbor and INEC.
Reacting through its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, the party sought to draw a firm line between the congresses in question and its slate of candidates. “We wish to assure members of the Party and the general public that this judgment has no effect whatsoever on the direct primaries through which the Party’s candidates have emerged at all levels,” he said. Abdullahi confirmed that the ADC had already begun the process of challenging the decision, which he described as “legally unsustainable,” and aligned the party’s reading of the law with the dissenting opinion. Shortly after the ruling, the party, represented in court by its National Welfare Secretary, Nkem Ukandu, indicated it would proceed to the Supreme Court.
The judgment lands at a delicate moment. The ADC became the rallying point for Nigeria’s opposition after leaders including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Labour Party’s 2023 candidate Peter Obi, former Kaduna Governor Nasir El-Rufai and former Rivers Governor Rotimi Amaechi adopted it in July 2025 as the vehicle to confront President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress in 2027. The platform’s founder, Ralph Nwosu, stepped aside that same month, clearing the way for the Mark led interim structure. Since then, the arrangement has been repeatedly contested, first by a faction linked to Nafiu Bala, and now through a widening chain of litigation, including a related Sokoto matter adjourned to July 22.
For a coalition still struggling to settle its presidential ticket and persuade figures like Obi to formally complete their transition, the ruling adds another layer of uncertainty. How the Supreme Court eventually resolves the question of who lawfully controls the party’s structures may prove decisive for its readiness ahead of 2027.