By Mary Onyia
A Federal High Court in Abuja has affirmed the leadership of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) under former Senate President David Mark, dismissing a suit challenging his emergence as the party’s national chairman.
In a judgment delivered on Thursday, Justice Musa Liman held that the suit filed by House of Representatives member Leke Abejide lacked merit. The court upheld the preliminary objections raised by the ADC, its former national chairman, Ralph Nwosu, Mark, and the party’s national secretary, Rauf Aregbesola.
Justice Liman ruled that the dispute bordered on the internal affairs of the party and was therefore beyond the court’s jurisdiction. He also held that Abejide lacked the legal standing to file the suit, having failed to show that his rights were violated, and noted that he did not exhaust the party’s internal dispute resolution process before approaching the court.
The judge further held that the process that produced Mark and Aregbesola complied with the ADC constitution and the Electoral Act, 2026. He affirmed that Nwosu’s handover of the party’s leadership was lawful and that the July 2, 2025, stakeholders’ meeting validly paved the way for the National Executive Council meeting of July 29, 2025, where the new leadership emerged under the supervision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The court consequently declared Mark’s emergence as national chairman and Aregbesola’s appointment as national secretary valid. It also ordered Abejide to pay N2 million in costs to each defendant and slammed his counsel with a N10 million penalty in line with the Electoral Act, 2026.