By Nchetachi Chukwuajah
The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has adjourned the judgement in a fresh suit seeking the removal of Senator David Mark and Rauf Aregbesola as Chairman and Secretary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), respectively, to Tuesday, April 14.
The ruling in the suit filed by a member of the House of Representatives from Kogi State, Honourable Leke Abejide, was scheduled for Monday, April 13, but the trial judge, Justice Musa Liman, shifted it forward by 24 hours due to other pressing official engagements.
A Registrar of the court announced the adjournment of the judgement date in the suit seeking the removal of Mark and Aregbesola on Monday, April 13.
Justice Liman had, on Friday, April 10, fixed April 13 to deliver the judgement after Abejide’s counsel, Ibrahim Idris, SAN, and lawyers to the defence adopted their written addresses for and against the suit.
Abejide, a member of the ADC, had filed the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1637/2025 through his lawyer on February 15, listing the ADC, its former National Chiarman, Ralph Nwosu, Mark, Aregbesola, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the 1st to 5th defendants, respectively.
Among the eight reliefs in the suit, Abejide sought an order nullifying Nwosu’s handover or transfer of ADC’s leadership to Mark and Aregbesola as interim National Chairman and interim National Secretary, respectively, on July 2, 2025, at Shehu Musa Yar’adua Centre, Abuja, for being illegal, unlawful, null and void.
He sought an order of perpetual injunction restraining Mark and Aregbesola from parading themselves as leaders of the party “as their purported appointment, selection or election was unlawful, illegal, null and void.”
Abejide also sought a perpetual injunction, restraining INEC from recognising Mark and Aregbesola as ADC’s interim national chairman and interim national secretary “as their appointment, selection or election did not meet the requirements of Section 82 of the Electoral Act, 2022,” among other prayers.
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The ADC was represented by Shaibu Aruwa, SAN; Nwosu was represented by P. I. Oyewole; and Mark was represented by Rilwan Okpanachi. Aregbesola’s lawyer was I. R. Abdullahi, and counsel who appeared for INEC was Anthony Onyeri.
The defense counsels all prayed the court to dismiss the suit for lacking merit.
In their arguments, ADC, Nwosu, Mark, and Aregbesola submitted that Abejide lacked the legal right to institute a suit.
While presenting their separate preliminary objections, they argued that the subject matter of the suit borders on the internal affairs of a political party, which is non-justiciable, and that the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
They also stated that, contrary to Abejide’s submission, the Mark-led leadership was elected on July 29, 2025, at the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party and not on July 2, 2025.
According to them, Abejide had not demonstrated any reasonable cause why the suit should be filed.
The defendants argued that the matter is academic and urged the court to dismiss the suit with substantial costs in line with Section 83(5) of the Electoral Act, 2026.
