From Victor Osula, Abuja
The leadership crisis rocking the African Democratic Congress (ADC) took a fresh turn on Friday, as the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho, reassigned the suit challenging the party’s leadership structure to another judge following the elevation of Justice Emeka Nwite to the Court of Appeal.
The case, filed by former ADC National Deputy Chairman, Nafiu-Bala Gombe, has now been transferred to Justice Peter Lifu for continuation of proceedings after Justice Nwite was among the judges recently recommended by the National Judicial Council (NJC) for appointment to the appellate court.
NJC, at its 111th meeting held on May 13, recommended 12 judges, including Justice Nwite, to President Bola Tinubu for elevation to the Court of Appeal.
Gombe had instituted the suit seeking an order restraining former Senate President, Senator David Mark, former Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, and members of the party’s interim National Working Committee (NWC) from parading themselves as leaders of the ADC. He argued that the emergence of Mark as National Chairman and Aregbesola as National Secretary violated provisions of the ADC constitution as well as the Electoral Act.
In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1819/2025, Gombe listed the ADC, David Mark, Aregbesola, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and former ADC National Chairman, Chief Ralph Nwosu, as first to fifth defendants, respectively.
Nwosu had stepped down from office to pave the way for the emergence of the Mark-led leadership structure within the opposition party.
The matter had earlier been adjourned indefinitely on April 14 by Justice Nwite following a request by Gombe to await the outcome of proceedings at the Supreme Court.
However, the apex court, on April 30, set aside the Court of Appeal order directing parties to maintain status quo ante bellum in the ADC leadership dispute — a development upon which INEC reportedly acted in derecognising the Mark-led leadership.
The Supreme Court subsequently directed parties to return to the Federal High Court for an accelerated hearing of the substantive suit.
When the matter resumed on May 8, counsel to Gombe, Luka Haruna, SAN, requested that the case be transferred from Justice Nwite to another judge, disclosing that a formal letter had already been written to the Chief Judge to that effect.
Although no reason was publicly advanced for the transfer request, the application triggered stiff opposition from lawyers representing the ADC leadership.
Counsel to the ADC, Rilwan Okpanachi; counsel to David Mark, Suleiman Usman, SAN; Mohammed Sheriff, who represented Aregbesola; and P.I. Oyewole, counsel to Ralph Nwosu, all opposed the application, describing it as “an ambush”.
The defence lawyers argued that the request amounted to “forum shopping” and an attempt to frustrate the directive for accelerated hearing earlier issued by the Court of Appeal and affirmed by the Supreme Court.
They maintained that they had absolute confidence in the integrity, impartiality and sound judicial discretion of Justice Nwite, insisting that no development in the proceedings justified the transfer request.
According to the lawyers, the letter allegedly written to the Chief Judge without serving parties in the matter amounted to a breach of due process.
“The so-called letter in a normal view is a fundamental breach of procedure, amounting in law to an illegality and not a mere irregularity”, the defence counsel argued.
Despite their objections, the lawyers informed the court that a substantive hearing could not proceed because the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the Supreme Court judgement had not yet been obtained.
Justice Nwite subsequently adjourned the matter indefinitely pending the production of the apex court’s judgement before the eventual reassignment of the case to Justice Lifu.
The development comes amid heightened political activities within the ADC following the emergence of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as the party’s presidential candidate on May 27, after defeating two other aspirants.
Atiku emerged winner of the ADC presidential primary election after polling 1,846,370 votes to defeat Amaechi, who secured 504,117 votes, while economist Mohammed Hayatu-Deen garnered 177,120 votes.
