[Flashback] ADC Crisis: INEC Tells Court To Stay Out Of Party Affairs

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has urged the Federal High Court in Abuja not to intervene in what it described as the internal affairs of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) amid the party’s ongoing leadership dispute.

According to an affidavit deposed by Jacob Ayuba, an assistant executive officer at INEC, on September 12, 2025, the commission made the request in response to a lawsuit filed by Nafiu Bala, a factional chairman of the ADC. Bala had approached the court to challenge the leadership of the party’s National Working Committee led by former Senate President David Mark.

Bala’s suit, filed on September 2, 2025, sought to prevent members of the Mark-led committee from presenting themselves as party leaders and requested that INEC recognise him as the acting national chairman. The suit listed ADC, David Mark, Rauf Aregbesola, INEC, and Ralph Nwosu as respondents.

In the affidavit, Ayuba explained that INEC had received a letter from the ADC on July 4, 2025, inviting the commission to monitor a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting initially scheduled at the ADC global campus but later relocated to Chelsea Hotel in Abuja on July 29, 2025. INEC officials monitored the meeting and confirmed leadership changes, with David Mark appointed as interim national chairman and Rauf Aregbesola as national secretary. Their names, along with other national officers, were subsequently uploaded on INEC’s official website.

Ayuba argued that Bala’s request essentially sought judicial interference in a political party’s internal affairs, which he stated falls outside the court’s jurisdiction. “A court of record should not dabble into a political question which remains the exclusive preserve of political parties,” the affidavit read. He also noted that the acts Bala sought to restrain had already been completed, and the law does not permit an injunction to stop a completed action.

Meanwhile, Mark challenged the lower court’s jurisdiction by filing an appeal. On March 12, 2026, however, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, describing it as incompetent and unmeritorious. The three-member panel, led by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam, ruled that the trial court had only directed that parties be put on notice and had not issued a substantive ruling. The appellate court ordered all parties to maintain the status quo pending resolution of the case at the trial court.

Following the ruling, INEC announced on April 1 that it would refrain from engaging with either the Mark or Bala factions and would not monitor any meetings, congresses, or conventions organised by the rival groups until the court settles the leadership dispute.

The development marks a significant turn in the ongoing leadership crisis within the ADC, which has intensified divisions in the party ahead of the 2027 general elections.