BREAKING: Court Adjourns Ruling on Suit to Remove Mark, Aregbesola as ADC Leaders to April 14

The Federal High Court in Abuja has moved the decision in a new case to April 14. The case is trying to stop Senator David Mark and Rauf Aregbesola from acting like they are the African Democratic Congress (ADC) Chairman and Secretary, respectively.

The decision in the case brought by Kogi State House of Representatives member Hon. Leke Abejide was supposed to be made today, but Justice Musa Suleiman Liman moved it back by 24 hours because he had other important official business to attend to.

A Registrar of the Court told reporters and politicians who had been at the court since 8 a.m. on Monday that the judgment would be put off.

Most of the politicians, mostly those from the camps of the lawmaker and David Mark-led leadership, left the courtroom one by one when they realized what was going on.

The Judge set April 13 as the date for the verdict last Friday after Abejide’s lawyer, Ibrahim Idris, SAN, and the defense lawyers made their cases for and against the suit.

Abejide, who is a member of the House of Representatives for the ADC, filed the lawsuit with the help of his lawyer.

The lawmaker filed an originating summons on February 15, 2026, with the case number FHC/ABJ/CS/1637/2025. The lawmaker sued ADC, Ralph Nwosu, Mark, Aregbesola, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the first to fifth defendants.

Nwosu used to be the national chairman of the ADC, but he stepped down so that Mark, the former Senate President, could take over as party leader.

Abejide asked for an order that Nwosu’s transfer of ADC’s leadership to Mark and Aregbesola as interim national Chairman and interim national Secretary on July 2, 2025, at the Shehu Musa Yar’adua Centre in Abuja was illegal, unlawful, null, and void.

He asked for a permanent injunction to stop Mark and Aregbesola from acting like party leaders because “their supposed appointment, selection, or election was unlawful, illegal, null and void.”

He also asked for a permanent injunction to stop INEC from recognizing Mark and Aregbesola as ADC’s interim national chairman and interim national secretary “because their appointment, selection, or election did not meet the requirements of Section 82 of the Electoral Act, 2022,” among other things.

However, the lawyers for ADC (Shaibu Aruwa, SAN), Nwosu (P. I. Oyewole), Rilwan Okpanachi (Mark), Aregbesola (I. R. Abdullahi), and INEC (Anthony Onyeri) all asked the court to throw out the case because it didn’t have any merit.

ADC, Nwosu, Mark, and Aregbesola all said in their arguments that Abejide did not have the legal right to file the suit.

In their separate preliminary objections, they said that the case is about things that are part of a political party’s internal affairs, which can’t be decided by a court.

They also said that the court didn’t have the power to look into these kinds of things.

The defendants also said that Abejide was wrong when he said that the Mark-led leadership was elected on July 2, 2025, at the party’s National Executive Committee meeting. It was actually elected on July 29, 2025.

They said that Abejide had not given any good reason for why the lawsuit should be filed.

The defendants, who asked the court to throw out the case with a lot of costs in line with Section 83(5) of the Electiral Act, 2026, said that the case is academic.