Court Sacks Atiku: CTC Document Explains Justice Lifu's Ruling on ADC Crisis

• Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja ruled on November 5, 2026, on a leadership dispute rocking the ADC
• The court examined a resignation letter linked to Deputy National Chairman Nafiu Gombe and found critical weaknesses in the defendants' case
• The judge's ruling centred on whether the party's NEC could install new executives without following democratic election procedures

A Federal High Court in Abuja has nullified the emergence of Senator David Mark and other executives who took control of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in July 2025, ruling that their leadership transition did not comply with constitutional and statutory requirements.

Justice Peter Lifu delivered the judgment on November 5, 2026, after examining three central issues: the authenticity of a resignation letter attributed to Deputy National Chairman Nafiu Bala Gombe, the scope of the party's National Executive Committee (NEC) powers, and whether the new executives emerged through a genuinely democratic process.

The disputed resignation letter

According to Vanguard, citing the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the ruling, the Mark-led camp argued that Gombe had willingly resigned from his position on May 17, 2025, before the NEC meeting that produced the new leadership, and therefore had no legal standing to challenge the transition. The letter was tendered in court as Exhibit ADC 1.

Justice Lifu was not persuaded. He compared the signature on the letter against Gombe's signatures on other documents and found clear differences in structure, style, formation and manner of execution. The judge said certification of a document as a true copy does not by itself confirm that a disputed signature is genuine. He described the resignation letter as fictitious or fabricated and threw it out as reliable evidence.

ADC crisis: NEC powers and the law

The defendants also relied on Article 19(14) of the ADC constitution, arguing that NEC had the authority to dissolve the existing National Working Committee and put a new leadership in place. Justice Lifu acknowledged that political parties have the right to manage their own internal affairs, but held that this right cannot override the Constitution or applicable legislation.

He cited Section 223(1)(a) of the 1999 Constitution, which requires parties to hold periodic democratic elections for their principal officers, as well as Sections 82(1) and 82(3) of the Electoral Act 2022. His conclusion was clear: NEC's administrative powers do not amount to a licence to appoint national executives in place of a legally required election.

Atiku sacked: No evidence of a democratic election

On the question of how Mark and the other executives actually emerged, the judge found that the defendants could not prove that party members or elected delegates had the opportunity to vote for candidates of their choice. The defendants pointed to INEC's monitoring of the NEC meeting as evidence of compliance, but Justice Lifu drew a sharp line between notifying the electoral commission and conducting a proper democratic election.

Relying on the Supreme Court's decision in Peoples Democratic Party v. Sule Lamido and Ors., the judge also rejected the argument that the dispute was purely an internal party matter beyond the reach of the courts, noting that the case raised questions of constitutional and statutory compliance.

ADC crisis: What the court ordered

Justice Lifu invalidated the emergence of Mark and the other disputed executives, nullified the resolutions of the ADC's 99th NEC meeting of July 29, 2025, and restrained the affected executives from holding themselves out as party officers. He declared Gombe the only elected NWC member whose four-year tenure remained legally valid and said Gombe was entitled to supervise the party's affairs. The judgment did not, however, automatically install Gombe as National Chairman.

Tinubu dismisses allegation of one-party state

Legit.ng earlier reported that President Bola Tinubu commented on the recent allegation by some opposition politicians that he was working to turn Nigeria into a one-party state.

Speaking at the APC national summit in Abuja on May 22, he maintained that people were joining his party because they were driving the aspirations of the people.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and Peter Obi of the Labour Party had accused Tinubu of causing an opposition party crisis to stage his plan.

Source: Legit.ng