Court Validates David Mark’s Leadership of ADC

The Federal High Court in Abuja has affirmed former Senate President David Mark as the national chairman of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) by dismissing a lawsuit challenging his leadership. Justice Musa Liman ruled the challenge lacked merit, upholding the position of the party leadership.

The suit, initiated by House of Representatives member Leke Abejide , was dismissed following preliminary objections from the ADC, Mark, former chairman Ralph Nwosu , and national secretary Rauf Aregbesola . The court's decision solidifies the current leadership structure within the party.

The court held that it lacked jurisdiction to interfere in the internal affairs of the political party, describing the dispute as non-justiciable. Justice Liman further ruled that Abejide had no legal standing to institute the action because he failed to demonstrate that his rights had been violated by the emergence of the current leadership.

The judge also found that the lawmaker did not exhaust the ADC’s internal dispute resolution mechanisms before approaching the court.

Justice Liman resolved all the issues raised in the substantive suit in favour of the respondents, holding that the process that produced Mark and Aregbesola complied with the party’s constitution and relevant electoral laws.

The court held that the transfer of leadership from Ralph Nwosu to David Mark strictly adhered to the ADC constitution. It affirmed that the July 2, 2025 gathering at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja served as a legitimate stakeholders’ meeting. This event properly preceded the July 29, 2025 National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, where Mark and Rauf Aregbesola formally emerged as party leaders during a process monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) .

Justice Musa Liman consequently declared the emergence of Mark as national chairman and Aregbesola as national secretary to be entirely valid. The court ruled that their appointments were fully consistent with both the party’s internal constitution and the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2026.

As a final consequence of dismissing the lawsuit, the court ordered Leke Abejide to pay N2 million in costs to each of the respondents. Furthermore, the court imposed a heavy N10 million penalty directly on the lawmaker’s counsel in accordance with the Electoral Act, 2026 .

Leke Abejide had filed the lawsuit arguing that Ralph Nwosu's transition of leadership to David Mark and Rauf Aregbesola during the July 2, 2025, meeting was entirely unlawful . He sought judicial reliefs to declare their appointments null and void, restrain them from parading themselves as the leaders of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), and prohibit the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognizing them.

The legal challenge concluded just weeks after the lawmaker defected from the ADC to the All Progressives Congress (APC) .