The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has kicked against the court judgment that nullified the candidacy of Atiku Abubakar, as its standard-bearer for the 2027 presidential elections.
JESNews reports that on Thursday, a
federal high court in Abuja invalidated the ADC’s leadership, led by David Mark, and cancelled all decisions made by the caretaker committee of the party, including the nomination of Atiku as the presidential candidate of the main opposition party for the 2027 elections.
In a judgment delivered by Peter Lifu, the presiding judge, said the Mark-led caretaker committee was illegal and ruled in favour of Nafiu Bala Gombe, a former national deputy chairman (north-east) of the party.
Bala went to the court to contest the process by which Mark and other members of the caretaker committee took control of the party after Ralph Nwosu, the former national chairman, resigned.
He contended that, following Nwosu’s resignation, he was constitutionally entitled to assume the party’s leadership.
Reacting to the court judgment, Bolaji Abdullahi, ADC spokesperson, described the verdict as a “desperate attempt to cripple the opposition and deny Nigerians the right to choose their leaders in the forthcoming general elections”.
He said in a signed statement made available to JESNews, that the judgment’s timing, coming barely 24 hours after the “massive turnout” at the ADC presidential campaign rally in Sokoto, “exposes the growing desperation of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)”.
“We have reasons to believe that the judgment had long been written on this case. The Sokoto rally was simply a trigger that stampeded its delivery,” the statement reads.
“Yesterday, Nigerians came out in their hundreds of thousands to demonstrate their support for the ADC and our promise of making life affordable for them. Today, they are being told that the party that they support and the candidates that they have supported at all levels could be erased by the stroke of a reckless judicial pen.
“Do these people understand what they are playing with? This is not about Atiku Abubakar or David Mark. It is about the democratic rights of Nigerians to freely choose their own leaders. It is about the rights of thousands of candidates to participate in a democratic process.”
Abdullahi stated that the court judgment is legally indefensible and would be challenged through every available judicial process.
“We have seen this script before. When they are scared that the opposition is gathering steam, they use their judges in the courts to influence legally indefensible judgments. But the millions of Nigerians that are hungry and waiting for them at the ballot box see right through them and will not sit down in silence while our democracy is taken away by the courts,” he said.
“We warn the APC: do not play with fires you cannot control. The peace and stability of Nigeria are bigger than the ambition of any president or political party. Nobody should be so desperate to retain power that they are prepared to put the entire country at risk. This is not the time to play silly games with the stability of this country.
“Nigeria belongs to Nigerians, not to the APC. The presidency is not an inheritance. If the President thinks he has performed well in office, why is he afraid of competition? If the APC thinks that its policies and candidates are popular, why don’t they subject themselves to free and fair elections?”
The spokesperson of the main opposition party appealed to members of the ADC to stay calm and be law-abiding as the party uses all legal means to overturn the judgment.
