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Court upholds David Mark-led ADC leadership, dismisses Leke Abejide’s suit
The Federal High Court Abuja has affirmed the David Mark-led leadership of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), while dismissing Leke Abejide’s suit challenging the party’s leadership.
Justice Musa Liman said the suit centered around the party’s internal affairs, and as such was not justiciable and lacked merit, while upholding the preliminary objections filed by the ADC, its former national chairman, incumbent national chairman and the party’s secretary.
Justice Liman ruled that Leke Abejide, a house of reps member who instituted the suit, could not establish any violation of his legal rights by the emergence of the current leadership, noting that the plaintiff did not exhaust the party’s internal dispute resolution mechanism before instituting the action.
The court further held that affairs surrounding party administration and leadership are generally outside the jurisdiction of courts, save for an obvious violation of the law or infringement of a member’s legal rights.
The judge stated that the stakeholders’ meeting of July 2, 2025, preceding the party’s National Executive Committee meeting of July 29, 2025, legitimately produced David Mark as National Chairman and Rauf Aregbesola as National Secretary.
He held that the NEC meeting was monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in compliance with the Electoral Act and ADC Constitution.
The court ordered Abejide to pay litigation costs of N2 million each to all defendants, while also awarding N10 million against his counsel.
Abejide had filed a suit on February 15, seeking the nullification of the leadership transfer from Nwosu to Mark and Aregbesola, on the grounds that the process was unlawful.
Abejide asked the court to invalidate the handover held at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre on July 2, 2025, in Abuja, while also seeking orders restraining both party leaders from functioning in their official capacities.
He also requested the court to stop INEC from recognising Mark and Aregbesola as ADC’s National Chairman and National Secretary respectively.
Justice Liman however dismissed the claims, while affirming the legitimacy of the current ADC leadership.
