The Federal High Court in Abuja has adjourned judgment in a suit seeking to restrain Senator David Mark and former Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, from parading themselves as the National Chairman and Secretary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), respectively, to April 14, 2026.
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The judgment, earlier fixed for Monday, was shifted by Justice Musa Suleiman Liman due to other pressing official engagements.
A Registrar of the court announced the adjournment to lawyers, journalists, and political stakeholders who had arrived at the court premises as early as 8:00 a.m. for the anticipated ruling. Following the announcement, many of the attendees, including supporters from both factions, gradually left the courtroom.
The suit was instituted by a member of the House of Representatives from Kogi State, Hon. Leke Abejide, through his counsel, Ibrahim Idris, SAN.
Marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1637/2025 and filed on February 15, 2026, the suit lists the ADC, its former National Chairman Ralph Nwosu, Senator David Mark, Rauf Aregbesola, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as defendants.
Abejide is challenging the legality of the July 2, 2025 handover of the party’s leadership by Nwosu to Mark and Aregbesola at the Shehu Musa Yar’adua Centre in Abuja, describing the action as unlawful, illegal, null, and void.
Among the reliefs sought, the lawmaker is asking the court to nullify the transfer of leadership and grant a perpetual injunction restraining Mark and Aregbesola from presenting themselves as leaders of the party. He is also seeking an order restraining INEC from recognising them, arguing that their emergence did not comply with Section 82 of the Electoral Act, 2022.
However, the defendants, through their respective counsel, including Shaibu Aruwa, SAN (for ADC), P. I. Oyewole (for Nwosu), Rilwan Okpanachi (for Mark), I. R. Abdullahi (for Aregbesola), and Anthony Onyeri (for INEC), urged the court to dismiss the suit.
They argued that the matter concerns the internal affairs of a political party, which is not justiciable, and that Abejide lacks the legal standing to institute the action.
The defence further maintained that the Mark-led leadership emerged from a National Executive Committee meeting held on July 29, 2025, not July 2 as claimed by the plaintiff, and described the suit as lacking merit and academic in nature.
Justice Liman had reserved judgment last Friday after all parties adopted their processes and presented final arguments.
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