Three members of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) have instituted a lawsuit before a federal high court in Abuja, challenging the interim leadership of the party led by former Senate President David Mark.
On June 2, opposition politicians unveiled the ADC as the platform to rally votes against President Bola Tinubu in the next elections.
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar; Rotimi Amaechi, former minister of transportation; Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 elections; and Nasir el-Rufai, former governor of Kaduna, are at the forefront of the opposition campaign.
Ralph Nwosu, the former national chairman of the ADC, said the executives of the party under his leadership decided to resign and support the interim leadership.
The coalition appointed Mark and Rauf Aregbesola, ex-governor of Osun state, as interim national chairman and secretary, respectively.
Bolaji Abdullahi, a former minister of sports, was appointed as the party’s spokesperson.
However, in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1328/2025 and filed on July 4, the plaintiffs, Adeyemi Emmanuel, Ayodeji Victor Tolu, and Haruna Ismaila, are asking the court to determine the legality of the interim leadership of the ADC.
They averred that Nwosu lacks the right to convene either a national working committee (NWC) or national executive committee (NEC) meeting or any other since his tenure as national chairman has expired.
The plaintiffs also stated that interim executives “cannot and should not act” in a leadership capacity, noting that they were appointed by an illegal meeting organised by a former national chairman.
Among several reliefs sought, the plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the appointment of Mark, Aregbesola, and Abdullahi as “unconstitutional, unlawful, null, and void”.
They also prayed the court for an order restraining the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) “from recognising the fourth, fifth, and sixth defendants as the interim national chairman, national secretary, and national publicity secretary of the first defendant (ADC).
