Lagos, Nigeria – A fierce leadership dispute within the African Democratic Congress (ADC), an opposition political party in Nigeria, has escalated as rival factions approach the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for official recognition.
Nafiu Bala, a former Deputy National Chairman of the party, is actively seeking to remove the current leadership structure, which is headed by former Senate President David Mark as Chairman and former Minister Rauf Aregbesola as Secretary. Bala insists he is the rightful national chairman following the departure of the former chairman, Ralph Nwosu.
On Wednesday, September 4, 2025, Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, rejected an initial legal request from Bala aimed at forcing the electoral commission to stop recognising Mark and Aregbesola. Instead, the judge directed the current leaders to explain why such a restraining order should not be granted.
Mark appealed this directive. However, on Tuesday, March 17, 2026, the Court of Appeal dismissed Mark’s appeal. The appellate court, led by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam, ruled that the appeal was procedurally flawed because it was filed without obtaining the necessary prior permission from the court. The judges directed all parties to maintain the existing state of affairs until the main lawsuit is fully resolved.
Following this development, Bala’s legal counsel, Robert Emukpoeruo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, submitted a letter dated Monday, March 16, 2026, to the electoral commission. He demanded that the commission cease recognising Mark and Aregbesola to uphold the court’s directive. Okay News reports that a rival legal representative, Sulaimon Usman, wrote a counter-letter on the same day. Usman urged the commission to reject Bala’s claims, noting that Mark’s leadership emerged from a National Executive Committee meeting officially monitored by the commission on Tuesday, July 29, 2025.
The internal crisis has also sparked external accusations. A party stakeholder identified as Abdullahi alleged that officials within the Nigerian Presidency and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) are pressuring the electoral commission to deregister the party entirely. Abdullahi claimed this is a strategy to prevent strong opposition and allow President Bola Tinubu to run unchallenged in the 2027 presidential election.
“We have it on good authority that the INEC chairman is under serious pressure from the Presidency and the All Progressives Congress to stop the ADC, and they have mobilised most of his commissioners into the project,” he said.
Ajibola Basiru, the National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, dismissed these allegations as entirely false. He clarified that neither the ruling party nor the Presidency is involved in the internal legal battles of another political organisation.
“One expects that any law-abiding organisation would respect the order of the appellate court rather than making red herrings and wild allegations against the Presidency or any other political party. We do not have any business with their litigation,” Basiru stated. He advised the feuding factions to focus on obeying judicial orders rather than pointing fingers.
