Breaking: Court sacks Mark-led ADC Exco, voids Atiku’s candidacy

By Ikechukwu Nnochiri, Abuja The Federal High Court in Abuja has sacked the Senator David Mark-led executives of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and invalidated all actions they took on behalf of the party. The actions included the nomination of a former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, as the party’s presidential candidate for the 2027 general elections.

Atiku, whose name was earlier published by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as a candidate for the presidential poll, has since chosen a former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, as his running mate. However, in a judgment delivered on Thursday by Justice Peter Lifu, the court declared illegal the Senator Mark-led Caretaker Committee of the ADC, which organised the primary election that produced Atiku as the party’s presidential flag bearer.

The court found merit in a suit brought before it by the aggrieved former National Deputy Chairman (North-East) of the party, Nafiu Bala Gombe. Gombe had approached the court to query the process through which the Senator Mark-led Committee took over the reins of leadership of the party. He maintained that, with the resignation of the former National Chairman, Chief Ralph Nwosu, he (Gombe) was qualified to assume the party’s leadership.

Consequently, he, among other things, prayed the court to nullify all actions taken on behalf of the party by the Senator Mark-led leadership. Listed as defendants in the suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1819/2025, were the ADC, INEC, Senator Mark, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and Chief Ralph Nwosu. The plaintiff further urged the court to restrain Senator Mark and Aregbesola from parading themselves as National Chairman and Secretary, respectively, of the ADC, insisting that their emergence violated the party’s constitution and the provisions of the Electoral Act.

The court upheld the plaintiff’s claim and granted his reliefs, a verdict that could spark a chain of reactions in the polity, with the presidential election scheduled for January 16, 2027. Already, the ADC has vowed to appeal the judgment. Reacting to the outcome of the case, the National Welfare Secretary of the ADC, Mr. Nkemakolam Ukandu, who was later joined as an interested party in the matter, said the verdict would be challenged at the appellate court.

The development comes barely 24 hours after the party’s candidate, Atiku, held a massive rally in Sokoto State as part of his campaign for the 2027 presidential election.