Court sacks Mark-led ADC exco, voids Atiku’s candidacy

Crime

By Linda Ikeji
5 November 2026, 12:17 pm

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 get together.

The actions included the nomination of a former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, because the get together’s presidential candidate for the 2027 normal elections.

Atiku, whose identify was earlier printed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as a candidate for the presidential ballot, has since chosen a former Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, as his operating mate.

Channels TV studies that in a judgment delivered on Thursday by Justice Peter Lifu, the court docket declared unlawful the Senator Mark-led Caretaker Committee of the ADC, which organised the first election that produced Atiku because the get together’s presidential flag bearer.

The court docket discovered benefit in a go well with introduced earlier than it by the aggrieved former National Deputy Chairman (North-East) of the get together, Nafiu Bala Gombe.

Gombe had approached the court docket to question the method by means of which the Senator Mark-led Committee took over the reins of management of the get together.

He maintained that, with the resignation of the previous National Chairman, Chief Ralph Nwosu, he (Gombe) was certified to imagine the get together’s management.

Consequently, he, amongst different issues, prayed the court docket to nullify all actions taken on behalf of the get together by the Senator Mark-led management.

Listed as defendants within the go well with, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1819/2025, have been the ADC, INEC, Senator Mark, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and Chief Ralph Nwosu.

The plaintiff additional urged the court docket to restrain Senator Mark and Aregbesola from parading themselves as National Chairman and Secretary, respectively, of the ADC, insisting that their emergence violated the get together’s structure and the provisions of the Electoral Act.

The court docket upheld the plaintiff’s declare and granted his reliefs, a verdict that would spark a sequence of reactions within the polity, with the presidential election scheduled for January 16, 2027.

The ADC has already vowed to enchantment the judgment.