2027: Atiku’s Supporters Protest In Abuja Over Court Judgment Voiding Candidacy

Supporters of the presidential candidate of the African democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, are protesting at the Federal High Court in Abuja, demanding the release of the certified true copy of the judgment by Justice Peter Lifu that nullified his candidacy in the upcoming 2027 general election. Justice Peter Lifu of 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’s supporters protesting in Abuja on Wednesday, November 11, 2026 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. The ADC has already vowed to appeal the judgment. Reacting to the outcome of the case, the National Welfare Secretary of the ADC, Nkemakolam Ukandu, who was later joined as an interested party in the matter, said the verdict would be challenged at the appellate court.

In a development on Wednesday, the aggrieved protesters alleged that the delay in releasing the CTC to Atiku’s counsel is a ploy to deprive him of his rights to appeal the judgment which sacked the former vice president as the presidential candidate of the ADC. Apart from submitting their petition at the Federal High Court, the protesters noted that they are also going to the US Embassy and the United Nations to submit the same petition and ask for their interventions.