ADC leadership crisis: Judge declines to hand off case

By Ikechukwu Nnochiri

Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja, on Tuesday, declined to recuse himself from the suit seeking to remove the Senator David Mark-led executives of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).

The judge, who had on Monday delivered a controversial judgment directing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister the ADC and four other political parties over failure to meet constitutional requirements, said there was no cogent and verifiable reason why he should hand off the case against the Senator Mark-led executives of the ADC.

Consequently, he fixed June 23 for accelerated hearing of the suit filed by a former national deputy chairman (North-East) of the ADC, Nafiu Bala Gombe, who is challenging the legality of the Senator Mark-led Caretaker Committee of the party.

Aside from the INEC, all the other defendants in the suit demanded Justice Lifu’s recusal from the matter.

Listed as defendants in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1819/2025 are the ADC, INEC, Senator Mark, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, and Chief Ralph Nwosu.

Gombe is contending that with the resignation of the former National Chairman, Chief Nwosu, he is qualified to assume the party’s leadership.

He is praying the court to nullify all actions taken on behalf of the party by the Senator Mark-led leadership.

The plaintiff is further urging the court to restrain Senator Mark and Aregbesola from parading themselves as National Chairman and Secretary, respectively, of the ADC, insisting their emergence violated the party’s constitution and the provisions of the Electoral Act.

Meanwhile, although only five defendants were initially listed in the suit, the National Welfare Secretary of the party, Nkemakolam Ukandu, filed a motion to be joined as an interested party whose rights could be impacted by the outcome of the case.

Ukandu also joined in asking Justice Lifu to return the case file to the Chief Judge for reassignment.

He drew the attention of the court to the fact that the party had already petitioned both Justice Lifu and the Chief Judge before the National Judicial Council (NJC), adding that the two had also been sued over the handling of legal disputes involving the ADC.

Justice Lifu dismissed the recusal applications and imposed a fine of N500, 000 each against Senator Mark and Aregbesola.

However, the plaintiff, through his team of lawyers led by Mr. Robert Emukpero, SAN, urged the court to dismiss the motions as grossly lacking in merit, insisting they were a mere ploy to delay the hearing.

Gombe’s lawyer insisted that the defendants failed to adduce any evidence to establish that the trial judge had exhibited any form of bias against them.

It will be recalled that the case was previously before Justice Emeka Nwite, who delayed the hearing to await the outcome of an interlocutory appeal Senator Mark filed before the Supreme Court to challenge the jurisdiction of the court to interfere in a dispute he said bordered on the domestic affairs of a political party.

Following the Supreme Court’s dismissal of the appeal on April 30, the plaintiff, Gombe, on May 4, wrote a petition to the Chief Judge, requesting the reassignment of the suit to another judge.

The plaintiff insisted he was no longer confident in Justice Nwite’s ability to determine the matter objectively.

All the defendants opposed the petition, accusing the plaintiff of attempting to frustrate the speedy hearing of the case.

“We also consider it as an attempt to frustrate the order for accelerated hearing granted by the Court of Appeal and upheld by the Supreme Court,” said counsel to the 1st defendant, Mr. Realwan Okpanachi.

Justice Nwite subsequently withdrew from the case, and it was reassigned to Justice Lifu, whose recusal the defendants also demanded.