By Abiola Olawale
The brewing leadership tussle within the African Democratic Congress (ADC), a major key opposition party positioning itself as challenger to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2027 general elections, appears to have taken another dramatic dimension.
This comes as a Federal High Court in Abuja has invited former President of the Senate and erstwhile minister of communications, David Mark, ex-Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola, and other leaders.
They have been requested to appear on September 15, 2025, to defend their respective positions amid allegations of inappropriate assumption of the leadership positions in ADC .
The court order, issued in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1819/2025, stems from a fresh legal challenge filed by some unknown politicians masquerading as plaintiffs Adeyemi Emmanuel, Ayodeji Tolu, and Haruna Ismaila.
The trio are seeking an interim injunction to prevent the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognizing Mark as National Chairman and Aregbesola as National Secretary of the ADC, respectively.
The suit also names the party itself, INEC, and outgoing National Chairman Chief Ralph Nwosu as defendants.
This development followed a leadership transition, where Nwosu announced the dissolution of the party’s structures to pave way for a new interim executive led by Mark.
Meanwhile, the ADC has dismissed reports that the court issued an injunction against Mark and Aregbesola.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Abdullahi, stated that some political actors, after failing to stop INEC from recognising the new leadership, had resorted to spreading fake news.
He explained that INEC had, on Wednesday, officially recognised Mark and Aregbesola as the party’s leaders, contrary to reports that the court restrained them.
Abdullahi said the ruling delivered by Justice Nwite clearly refused the plaintiff’s ex-parte application. According to him, the ruling only directed that the defendants be put on notice, asking them to appear before the court to show cause why the application should not be granted, and adjourned the matter to September 15, 2025, for hearing.
He described reports suggesting otherwise as a deliberate distortion of the court’s ruling. According to him, political jobbers “having failed to stop INEC from acknowledging the leadership change in ADC, are now resorting to fake news. This shows that these agents of destabilisation will stop at nothing, including misrepresenting court rulings, in their desperate efforts to sow confusion and weaken opposition parties.”
