It took one man’s suit, one judge’s ruling, and barely 24 hours after a triumphant Sokoto rally to unravel the African Democratic Congress’s 2027 plans.
On Thursday, Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja delivered a judgment that declared the David Mark-led caretaker committee illegal, voided every decision it had taken, and — in the most consequential stroke — invalidated the nomination of Atiku Abubakar as the party’s presidential candidate for the 2027 election.
The verdict landed like a thunderclap.
The Man Behind the Suit
The case was not brought by the ruling party, nor by a rival presidential campaign. It came from within the ADC’s own ranks.
Nafiu Bala Gombe, the party’s former national deputy chairman for the North-East, went to court to challenge how the Mark-led committee assumed control of the party.
His argument was rooted in succession. With the resignation of former National Chairman Chief Ralph Nwosu, Gombe insisted he was constitutionally entitled to step into the leadership void.
When that did not happen, he asked the court to nullify every action the Mark-led leadership had taken on the party’s behalf.
The Defendants
Listed in the suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1819/2025, were the ADC itself, the Independent National Electoral Commission, Senator Mark, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and Chief Nwosu.
Gombe asked the court to restrain Mark and Aregbesola from parading themselves as National Chairman and Secretary respectively, arguing that their emergence violated both the party’s constitution and the Electoral Act.
The Ruling That Landed
Justice Lifu found in the plaintiff’s favour.
In one sweep, the court declared the caretaker committee illegal, cancelled the decisions it had taken, and voided the nominations of the party’s candidates for the 2027 general elections.
For Atiku, the timing could hardly be worse. The judgment arrived less than a day after he drew a massive crowd in Sokoto as part of his presidential campaign — a show of strength that now competes for attention with a legal setback that threatens to remove his name from the ballot.
What Comes Next
Meanwhile, the ruling has the potential to destabilise the political landscape ahead of the January 16, 2027, presidential polls.
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Furthermore, Atiku has already signalled he will fight on, and the ADC has blamed the APC for the judgment. But the legal reality is stark: as things stand, the party’s leadership has been voided, its decisions erased and its candidates’ nominations cancelled.
Whether the Court of Appeal reverses that — or whether the ADC’s 2027 ambitions survive at all — is now the question hanging over one of the opposition’s most prominent platforms.