By Okoi Obono-Obla
Since 2025, I have predicted in numerous essays that the African Democratic Congress would be consumed by messy litigation. That prediction has materialised.
When Atiku Abubakar, under the guise of a coalition, usurped the structure of the ADC — a party founded in 2005 by Chief Ralph Nwosu — supplanted its leadership and imposed handpicked executives in utter disregard of the party’s constitution, the legal consequence was foreseeable.
Today, Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1819/2025, filed by Nafiu Bala Gombe, has sacked the Senator David Mark-led Caretaker Committee and nullified all actions taken by it, including the nomination of Atiku Abubakar as presidential candidate and Rotimi Amaechi as running mate.
The legal maxim is ex nihilo nihil fit — out of nothing, nothing comes. A candidacy erected on a foundation declared illegal cannot stand.
The real death knell, however, is not just the nullification. It is the crippling of momentum for all ADC candidates barely three months to the general elections. Their opponents will make heavy weather of this, campaigning that the ADC ticket is mired in legal uncertainty.
The appellate remedy offers little comfort. Compiling and transmitting the record of appeal to the Court of Appeal will take about a month, pushing us into December 2026. The judiciary will then proceed on Christmas vacation from the second week of December and resume in the first week of January 2027.
With presidential and National Assembly elections fixed for 15 January 2027 and governorship and State Assembly elections for 6 February 2027, any Court of Appeal decision on an appeal by Senator Mark and his group will likely come in the very week of the presidential poll.
Worse still, this is not a pre-election matter under Section 285 of the Constitution with a 60-day appellate timeline. It is an ordinary intra-party leadership dispute. The losing party at the Court of Appeal retains the right to appeal to the Supreme Court, a process that can take several months.
For Atiku Abubakar and the ADC, this is a massive blow to the opposition at the worst possible time.
