The race for the 2027 presidency took a dramatic twist on Thursday as a Federal High Court in Abuja sacked the Senator David Mark-led leadership of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, and voided all actions taken by it — including the nomination of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as the party’s presidential candidate.
Justice Peter Lifu, in a judgment that has thrown Atiku’s qualification for the January 16, 2027 poll into fresh uncertainty, declared the Mark-led Caretaker Committee illegal.
The court held that the Committee’s emergence violated the ADC constitution and the Electoral Act, and therefore its primary that produced Atiku as standard bearer cannot stand.
The suit was filed by the party’s former National Deputy Chairman, North-East, Bala Gombe, who argued that following the resignation of former National Chairman, Chief Ralph Nwosu, he—not Mark—was qualified to assume leadership.
Gombe asked the court to nullify every decision of the Mark-led executives and restrain Senator David Mark and Rauf Aregbesola from parading themselves as National Chairman and National Secretary.
Justice Lifu agreed.
“All actions taken by the Mark-led Caretaker Committee, including the presidential primary, are illegal, null, and void,” the court ruled, effectively stripping Atiku of the party ticket on the eve of the final stretch to 2027.
The verdict, coming barely 24 hours after Atiku staged a massive campaign rally in Sokoto, threatens to spark a chain of legal and political reactions in an already tense presidential contest.
Atiku, who is campaigning on restoration of fuel subsidy and reopening of borders, now faces a qualification crisis—not from INEC, but from his own party’s internal leadership war.
Reacting, ADC National Welfare Secretary, Mr. Nkemakolam Ukandu, who was joined as an interested party, said the judgment will be challenged at the Court of Appeal, insisting the Mark leadership and Atiku’s candidacy remain intact pending appeal.
But as it stands, the court has pulled the rug—Atiku’s ADC ticket is invalidated, and unless overturned on appeal, the former vice president may be out of the 2027 ballot.
