Court Affirms Mark, Aregbesola Authentic Leaders Of ADC

Relief has come the way of the African Democratic Congress, (ADC), as a Federal High Court in Abuja affirmed the leadership  headed by Senator David Mark, dismissing a suit challenging the appointments of Mark and Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as the party’s national chairman and national secretary.

Delivering judgment on Thursday, Justice Musa Liman struck out the suit filed by House of Representatives member, Rep. Leke Abejide, describing it as lacking merit.

The court upheld the preliminary objections raised by the ADC, its former National Chairman, Chief Ralph Nwosu, Senator David Mark and Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, agreeing that the case was not one the court had jurisdiction to entertain.

Justice Liman held that the dispute concerned the internal affairs of the party and was therefore non-justiciable.

The judge further ruled that Abejide lacked the legal standing to institute the suit, having failed to demonstrate that his rights had been violated by the emergence of the Mark-led leadership.

He also noted that the lawmaker did not exhaust the ADC’s internal dispute resolution mechanism before approaching the court.

Justice Liman resolved all three issues raised in the substantive suit in favour of the defendants.

On the legality of the emergence of former Senate President David Mark and former Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola as the party’s leaders, the court ruled that their appointments complied with the relevant laws and the party’s constitution.

According to the judge, the decision by Chief Ralph Nwosu to hand over the party’s leadership to Mark did not violate the ADC constitution.

The court also held that the disputed July 2, 2025 meeting was merely a stakeholders’ meeting that preceded the party’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held on July 29, 2025, where Mark and Aregbesola formally emerged as the party’s leaders in an exercise monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).