WorldStage— A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has delivered a major political bombshell, sacking the Senator David Mark-led leadership of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and nullifying all its previous administrative decisions, including the controversial nomination of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as its 2027 presidential candidate.
The judgment was delivered on Thursday, November 5, 2026, in a suit filed by Nafiu Bala Gombe, a former National Deputy Chairman of the party.
The plaintiff, Nafiu Bala Gombe, challenged the process through which Mark and other members of the interim National Working Committee assumed control of the party following the departure of its former National Chairman, Ralph Nwosu.
Gombe maintained that, under the ADC constitution, he was entitled to assume the party’s leadership following Nwosu’s resignation.
The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1819/2025, also challenged the emergence of Rauf Aregbesola as National Secretary.
Justice Lifu reportedly upheld Gombe’s claims, recognising him as the authentic party leader and invalidating the actions of the Mark-led caretaker leadership.
The consequences extend to the party’s 2027 presidential nomination process, including the primary that produced former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as its presidential flag bearer.
Consequently, Atiku’s nomination through the disputed leadership structure has suffered a major legal setback.
The ruling comes against the background of previous litigation over the ADC leadership. On April 30, 2026, the Supreme Court set aside the Court of Appeal’s status quo ante bellum order and directed an expedited hearing of Gombe’s substantive case at the Federal High Court.
That decision did not finally determine who was entitled to lead the ADC; the November 5 judgment addresses the substantive leadership dispute.
The landmark ruling has sent shockwaves through Nigeria’s political landscape, creating massive uncertainty for the opposition’s strategies ahead of the next general elections.
The court declared that every decision, resolution, and primary election overseen by the ousted National Working Committee (NWC) was unlawful, invalid, and completely voided.
The primary casualty of this sweeping judicial verdict is Alhaji Atiku Abubakar whose emergence as the party’s presidential candidate for 2027 election is now nullified less than 24 hours after major campaign movements in Sokoto.
With this ruling, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will be legally bound to disregard Atiku’s documentation as a candidate under the current ADC structure unless the judgment is overturned on appeal.
Legal analysts indicate that this internal leadership dispute within the ADC had been brewing for months, pitting rival factions against Mark’s executive team over the control of the party machinery and its ticketing processes.
Today’s verdict completely resets the power balance within the party, legally wiping out months of political engineering orchestrated by the David Mark-led faction.
As news of the judgment broke, security was visibly beefed up around the party’s national secretariat.
Representatives of the ousted leadership have indicated plans to review the certified true copy of the judgment before approaching the Court of Appeal to seek a stay of execution.
Meanwhile, political observers note that the ruling is a massive technical setback for Atiku Abubakar’s camp, forcing his strategists back to the drawing board as they seek a stable political vehicle for the 2027 race.
The coming weeks will determine whether the ADC can survive this internal legal fracture or if a newly recognized leadership will steering the party in an entirely different direction.
