The leadership crisis rocking the African Democratic Congress (ADC) has taken a more confrontational turn, with a forum of the party’s state chairmen threatening a nationwide protest against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) unless it implements a Federal High Court judgment removing Senator David Mark and members of his interim National Working Committee from the party’s leadership.
The forum also demanded that INEC immediately replace the names of Mark and other members of the dissolved interim leadership on its portal with those of Nafiu Bala Gombe and officials it described as the party’s constitutionally recognised leadership.
Secretary of the forum, Kennedy Odion, made the demands while addressing journalists in Abuja on Friday, a day after Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, delivered the judgment nullifying the Mark-led interim leadership.
Odion said the ruling invalidated decisions taken by the dissolved leadership, including the nomination of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as the party’s presidential candidate and the emergence of other candidates through its congresses and national convention.
“We, the only legally recognised NEC members, accept in its entirety the judgment declaring our own Alhaji Nafiu Bala Gombe the authentic national chairman of the ADC,” he said.
The latest development further complicates the ADC’s leadership crisis, particularly as the dispute over the party’s congresses and national convention remains the subject of litigation.
The forum had earlier secured a judgment from Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on April 29, 2026, affirming the tenure of elected state executive committees pending valid congresses and a national convention. The Court of Appeal upheld the judgment on June 13.
Odion alleged that despite the decisions, INEC continued to recognise the Mark-led leadership and accept candidates produced through its congresses and convention.
