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From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
The Supreme Court has fixed April 22 for the hearing of the appeal filed by the David Mark-led leadership of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in relation to the party’s leadership dispute.
The appeal, marked SC/CV/180/2026, challenges the March 12 judgment of the Court of Appeal, which dismissed his appeal against the September 4, 2025 ruling by Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja, refusing to grant some injunctive reliefs contained in an ex parte application filed by a chieftain of the party, Nafiu Bala Gombe.
A five-member panel of the Supreme Court, led by Justice Mohammed Garba, chose the date yesterday after granting accelerated hearing in the appeal.
Meanwhile, the apex court has ordered counsel to Mark, Jibril Okutepa (SAN), to file the appellant’s brief and serve it on Wednesday.
The appellant, according to the court, is to file a reply brief, if need be, within one day of being served with the respondents’ briefs.
It equally ordered the respondents to each file and serve on the appellant a respondent’s brief within three days of being served with the appellant’s brief.
The respondents are Nafiu Bala, who is laying claim to be the legitimate national chairman of the party; Rauf Aregbesola, who is the interim national secretary of the Mark-led faction of the party; the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC); and Ralph Nwosu, a former national chairman of the party.
The journey to the Supreme Court followed the ADC’s leadership crisis, which ensued last year in the wake of the influx of top politicians into the party.
The political bigwigs who joined the ADC in droves include Mr Mark, Mr Aregbesola, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, former Kaduna State Governor Ahmed El-Rufai, and former Minister of Transport Rotimi Amaechi.
The politicians, who defected mainly from the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the PDP, had adopted the ADC as a coalition platform to challenge President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 election.
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The leadership crisis in the party began after the resignation of the party’s former executives, led by Mr Nwosu, and the emergence of a new National Working Committee led by Mr Mark on 29 July 2025.
The development triggered a legal challenge when Mr Bala, a former vice-national chairperson of the party, filed a suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja seeking recognition as the party’s rightful leader under its constitution.
INEC was joined as the fourth defendant in the suit.
While the case was pending, the Federal High Court ordered all parties to maintain the status quo pending the determination of the substantive suit.
The Court of Appeal later dismissed an interlocutory appeal filed by the Mark-led faction and ordered all parties, including INEC, to maintain the status quo earlier ordered by the Federal High Court, pending further determination of the matter.
The Court of Appeal’s decision marked a major shift in the dispute over the party’s leadership structure.
Following the ruling, INEC received letters from both factions on 16 March.
The Mark-led faction asked the commission not to recognise Mr Bala and to maintain its position pending resolution of the dispute, while the Bala faction asked INEC to give effect to the Court of Appeal judgment of 12 March in its favour.
INEC later removed the names of Mr Mark as national chairman and Rauf Aregbesola as national secretary from its website on 1 April, stating that it would not recognise any faction pending the resolution of the legal disputes.
The dispute later escalated into a protest in Abuja, where party members accused INEC of bias and warned that the handling of the crisis threatened internal democracy within the party.
While the substantive hearing at the Federal High Court in Abuja unfolded, Mr Mark and his group proceeded to the Supreme Court to challenge the Court of Appeal’s ruling.
