Supreme court to hear Mark-led faction’s appeal on ADC leadership dispute April 22

The supreme court has fixed April 22 to hear an appeal filed by a faction of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) led by David Mark, the former senate president, regarding the party’s leadership dispute.

At the court session on Tuesday, a five-member panel of the apex court, headed by Mohammed Garba, ordered the Mark-led faction of the party to file and serve legal processes on all respondents within the next 24 hours.

The court added that upon receipt of the processes, the respondents shall file their responses within three days.

Also, the apex court held that the appellants shall have one day to reply to the respondents’ responses, adding that filing and exchange of briefs by the parties must be completed before April 20.

Following the ruling, Jubril Okutepa, counsel to the Mark-led executives of the ADC, withdrew a motion earlier filed to stay the execution of the court of appeal judgment that ordered the party to maintain the status quo ante bellum.

Okutepa noted that the motion was no longer needed since the apex court had expedited the hearing of the substantive appeal.

With the withdrawal of the motion, the apex court struck it out.

The court had expressed its readiness to hear the case on Tuesday, had the parties filed the necessary processes.

“If parties were ready, we would have taken this appeal today. We need to deal with the appeal and not the motion. Ordinarily, this court does not grant an order of stay,” Garba said.

“The court is willing to deal with this case as soon as possible, if parties are ready.”

BACKGROUND

The appeal stems from a ruling delivered by the court of appeal delivered on March 12 which dismissed Mark’s appeal against a September 4 ruling of the federal high court.

At the federal high court, Nafiu Bala, a former deputy national chairman of the ADC, had filed a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1819/2025, seeking to stop the Mark-led leadership from parading themselves as national officers of the ADC.

Bala lists the ADC, Mark, Rauf Aregbesola (national secretary), the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and Ralph Nwosu, the party’s founder and former national chairman, as defendants.

Bala maintained that he never resigned his position as national vice-chairman and argued that he ought to have assumed leadership in line with the party’s constitution following Nwosu’s exit as national chairman.

He later declared himself national chairman, vowing to challenge the Mark leadership in court.

In the suit filed on September 2, 2025, Bala is seeking an order restraining INEC from recognising Mark-led executives and compelling recognition of himself as acting national chairman.

He also filed motions seeking to stop the party from holding meetings, congresses, or conventions pending the determination of the suit.

The motion ex parte was heard on September 4, 2025, and Emeka Nwite, the presiding judge, directed that the respondents, including INEC, be put on notice to show cause why the motion ex parte should not be granted.

Dissatisfied with an interim ruling, Mark filed an appeal challenging the jurisdiction of the federal high court to continue to hear Bala’s suit.

However, on March 12, 2026, the court of appeal dismissed Mark’s case in its entirety, holding that it was incompetent and unmeritorious.

The court of appeal directed parties to return to the trial court and maintain the status quo ante bellum pending the determination of the suit.

On April 1, INEC announced that it would no longer recognise the factions of the ADC led by Mark or Bala, following its review of the court of appeal judgement.

The commission also said it would refrain from engaging with both groups or monitoring their meetings, congresses, and conventions.

In response to INEC’s decision, the Mark-led faction filed a motion asking the court to compel the commission to restore their names and recognise them as members of the party’s national working committee (NWC).

The faction also filed an appeal marked SC/CV/180/2026 before the supreme court.(TheCable)