ADC Leadership Crisis Returns To Court Friday
Fresh legal proceedings are set to resume at the Federal High Court in Abuja as the leadership dispute within the African Democratic Party, ADC, returns before Justice Emeka Nwite on Friday, May 8.
The suit was filed by Nafiu Bala Gombe against former Senate President Senator David Mark and other parties over the control and leadership structure of the opposition party.
Court documents showed that hearing notices had already been issued to parties involved in the matter ahead of the scheduled proceedings.
The hearing date followed an application by counsel to the plaintiff, Luka Haruna, SAN, seeking accelerated hearing of the case after the Supreme Court reportedly dismissed an interlocutory appeal filed by Senator Mark on April 30, 2026.
In a letter dated May 5 and addressed to the Deputy Chief Registrar of the Federal High Court in Abuja, the plaintiff’s legal team, led by Robert Emukpoeruo, SAN, Lukman O. Fagbemi, SAN, and Luka Haruna, SAN, requested that the matter be relisted for hearing in line with the judgment of the Court of Appeal.
Part of the letter read: “Following the dismissal of the interlocutory appeal filed by Senator David Mark by the Supreme Court of Nigeria on April 30, 2026, we hereby apply for a date for the accelerated hearing of this matter in accordance with the judgment of the Court of Appeal.”
The lawyers also informed the court that a copy of the appellate court judgment directing accelerated hearing had been attached to the application.
The case had earlier been adjourned indefinitely on April 14 after Gombe requested that proceedings be suspended pending the Supreme Court’s decision on the appeal lodged by Mark.
Justice Nwite, while granting the indefinite adjournment at the time, declined an application by the Mark led leadership of the ADC seeking the hearing of pending motions alongside the substantive suit.
Gombe, a former National Deputy Chairman of the ADC, is challenging the emergence of Senator Mark as National Chairman and former Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, as National Secretary of the party.
In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1819/2025, Gombe argued that the appointments of Mark and Aregbesola violated provisions of the ADC constitution as well as the Electoral Act.
The plaintiff is seeking an order restraining the defendants from presenting themselves as leaders of the party pending the determination of the case.
Listed as defendants in the suit are the ADC, Senator David Mark, Rauf Aregbesola, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and former ADC National Chairman Ralph Nwosu.
Nwosu had stepped down from the party’s leadership before the emergence of Mark as head of the ADC structure now under dispute.
The matter adds to the growing list of internal political party disputes reaching Nigerian courts ahead of preparations for future electoral activities, with leadership legitimacy and party constitutional compliance increasingly becoming subjects of litigation.