The Federal High Court in Abuja has upheld the leadership of the African Democratic Congress, affirming former Senate President David Mark as the party’s National Chairman and dismissing a suit challenging his emergence.
Justice Musa Liman, who delivered the judgment on Thursday, ruled that the suit filed by House of Representatives member Leke Abejide lacked merit, holding that it concerned the internal affairs of a political party and was therefore not justiciable.
The court sustained the preliminary objections filed by the ADC, former National Chairman Ralph Nwosu, National Chairman David Mark and National Secretary Rauf Aregbesola.
Justice Liman held that Abejide failed to establish that his legal rights were violated by the party’s leadership transition and noted that he did not exhaust the ADC’s internal dispute resolution mechanism before approaching the court.
On the substantive issues, the judge ruled that the transfer of leadership from Nwosu to Mark complied with both the ADC Constitution and the Electoral Act.
The court found that the stakeholders’ meeting held on July 2, 2025, followed by the National Executive Committee meeting of July 29, 2025, which was monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission, formed part of the lawful process that produced Mark as National Chairman and Aregbesola as National Secretary.
Consequently, the court affirmed the legitimacy of the party’s current leadership.
Justice Liman also ordered Abejide to pay N2 million in litigation costs to each of the defendants and awarded N10 million against his counsel in accordance with the Electoral Act.
Abejide had instituted the suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1637/2025, seeking to nullify the leadership transition from Nwosu to Mark and Aregbesola, alleging that the process violated the law.
