By Okoi Obono-Obla
There is confusion galore and, should I say, a political misadventure in Cross River State, Nigeria, typical of what the ADC is mired and enmeshed in nationally since Atiku Abubakar and his cohorts moved into the party and attempted to take over its structure and leadership from its original founders and the leadership in place in July 2025, which triggered a political cataclysm and factional infighting and messy litigation.
This national crisis has found stark expression in Cross River State over who is the authentic governorship candidate of the party for the 2027 election.
On the Form EC9 provisional list pasted by INEC at its headquarters along Murtala Mohammed Highway, Calabar, on Monday, 31 August 2026, the Commission recognizes Ambassador Nkoyo Toyo, 67, as the ADC governorship candidate. Toyo, a legal practitioner and diplomat, is fielded by the David Mark-led national caretaker leadership that took over after the Atiku coalition joined the party.
However, a rival faction led by the State Chairman, Dr. John Ogar, rejects that list outright. Ogar insists that those on the INEC board emerged from “illegal congresses and an unconstitutional convention” already annulled by the High Court and Court of Appeal, describes them as imposters, and says the matter is now before the Supreme Court. That faction affirms Dr. Effiong Nyong, a broadcaster and former governorship aspirant who emerged through a delegates congress in Calabar, as the authentic candidate, and has petitioned the national leadership against parading Senator Gershom Bassey and Toyo as representatives of the party.
Thus, while INEC’s portal presently carries Nkoyo Toyo as the lawful ADC flag bearer for Cross River, the Ogar-led faction maintains that Effiong Nyong is the legitimate candidate, leaving the party’s ticket in limbo.
This impasse and stalemate in Cross River State will definitely reverberate in the presidential election billed for January 2027 if the choice of a governorship candidate is not resolved soon, as governorship candidates are a vital tool for mobilizing and galvanizing grassroots support at the polling units, electoral wards, and local government areas during elections.
Cross River State has 18 local government areas, 196 electoral wards, and 3,281 polling units, which are the fulcrum for electoral organization, voting, and mobilization.
In conclusion, unless the ADC resolves its leadership tussle and clarifies its authentic governorship candidate in Cross River State quickly, the party risks entering the January 2027 presidential contest without a coherent grassroots structure. Without a legitimate flag bearer to anchor ward and polling unit mobilization, its electoral fortunes in the state will remain severely compromised.
