The Federal High Court in Abuja has postponed its ruling in a case filed by Leke Abejide to April 14 after the judgment, initially scheduled for Monday, could not be delivered due to the judge’s engagement elsewhere.
Abejide is seeking a court order to stop David Mark and Rauf Aregbesola from presenting themselves as national chairman and national secretary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
The case, assigned to Justice Musa Liman, had earlier been fixed for judgment after both the plaintiff’s counsel, Ibrahim Idris (SAN), and lawyers representing the defendants adopted their arguments.
In the suit, Abejide, a member of the House of Representatives under the ADC, listed the party, Ralph Nwosu, Mark, Aregbesola, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as defendants.
He is asking the court to nullify the transfer of party leadership from Nwosu to Mark and Aregbesola, arguing that the process was unlawful. He also wants a perpetual injunction preventing them from acting as party leaders “as their purported appointment, selection or election was unlawful, illegal, null and void.”
Additionally, he is requesting that INEC be restrained from recognising them in those roles “as their appointment, selection or election did not meet the requirements of Section 82 of the Electoral Act, 2022”.
However, the defendants urged the court to dismiss the case, arguing that Abejide lacks the legal standing to file the suit and that the matter concerns internal party affairs, which they say are not subject to judicial review.
They also maintained that the leadership in question emerged from a National Executive Committee meeting held on July 29, 2025—not July 2 as claimed by the plaintiff—and described the case as lacking merit and essentially academic.
INEC, through its counsel, also asked the court to dismiss the suit, backing its position with a counteraffidavit and supporting evidence.
