David Mark As ADC National Chairman

The Federal High Court in Abuja has upheld the leadership of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), affirming the emergence of David Mark as the party’s National Chairman and Rauf Aregbesola as National Secretary.

In a judgment delivered on Thursday, Justice Musa Liman dismissed a suit filed by House of Representatives member Leke Abejide, ruling that the case lacked merit and related to the internal affairs of the political party.

The court upheld the preliminary objections raised by the ADC, its former National Chairman, Ralph Nwosu, David Mark and Rauf Aregbesola, holding that the dispute was non-justiciable and therefore beyond the court’s jurisdiction.

Justice Liman ruled that Abejide failed to establish that his legal rights had been infringed by the emergence of the party’s current leadership. The judge also held that the lawmaker did not exhaust the party’s internal dispute resolution mechanisms before approaching the court.

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On the substantive issues, the court resolved all the questions in favour of the defendants, holding that Ralph Nwosu’s transfer of the party’s leadership to David Mark did not violate the ADC constitution.

The court further held that the July 2, 2025 meeting held at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre was a stakeholders’ meeting that preceded the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting held on July 29, 2025.

According to the judgment, the NEC meeting, which was monitored by Independent National Electoral Commission, validly produced David Mark as National Chairman and Rauf Aregbesola as National Secretary.

Justice Liman held that their emergence complied with the ADC constitution, the Electoral Act 2026 and the party’s internal regulations.

The court also ordered Abejide to pay ₦2 million in costs to each of the defendants. In addition, it imposed a ₦10 million penalty on the plaintiff’s counsel in accordance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2026.

Abejide had instituted the suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1637/2025, on February 15, 2026, seeking to nullify the July 2, 2025 leadership transition that produced David Mark and Aregbesola. He also asked the court to restrain them from acting as the party’s national leaders and to prevent INEC from recognising them.

With Thursday’s ruling, the Federal High Court dismissed all the reliefs sought by the plaintiff, effectively affirming the legitimacy of the ADC’s current national leadership.