The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has insisted that it will participate in the 2027 general elections despite a Federal High Court judgment invalidating its leadership structure and the nominations of candidates produced under it.
The party’s Presidential Campaign Council spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the ADC would challenge the judgment through every available legal channel but would not resort to actions capable of threatening the country’s stability.
Ologbondiyan stated this during an interview with ARISE NEWS on Friday, November 6, while expressing concern over what he described as conflicting decisions by judges of the same Federal High Court on the party’s leadership dispute.
He questioned the implications of the latest ruling, arguing that allowing conflicting judgments to stand could weaken public confidence in the judiciary.
He said, “This topic is not just because I am a member of the ADC or because it is the ADC that is involved, but I always look prophetically towards our tomorrow as a country. I mean, is this the legacy we are going to leave behind for those who are coming after us?
“That we will have a situation back to the days of old? A situation that the late General Sani Abacha pointed to in removing the Shonekan government from office, because judges and justices were busy producing conflicting judgments. Is that where we are going back to?”
The ADC spokesman also alleged that the judgment was connected to the party’s growing popularity, particularly following its recent presidential campaign rally in Sokoto State.
According to him, the party had faced several obstacles in its efforts to hold campaign activities in the state but successfully organised a rally that attracted a large crowd.
Ologbondiyan further highlighted what he described as a new campaign strategy introduced by Atiku Abubakar and the ADC, involving direct engagement with residents through street-to-street mobilisation.
He said, “Those who said that the ADC and the presidency are rattled are speaking the truth. They are rattled.
“They have done everything possible to halt our campaign in Sokoto, including the unimaginable, and we have bypassed all that. We had a rally that was mammoth, which Nigerians are commending at this moment.”
He added that the party’s approach of moving through communities, stopping to address residents and engaging voters directly, had not been witnessed since 2003.
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Ologbondiyan alleged that attempts to remove the ADC from the electoral process were intended to prevent it from expanding its reach but maintained that the party would remain in the 2027 race.
On the legal controversy, he accused the court of disregarding an earlier judgment delivered by Justice Musa Liman, who, according to the ADC, affirmed the legitimacy of the David Mark-led National Working Committee.
He questioned why the earlier decision was not given due consideration during the proceedings before Justice Peter Lifu.
“How do you forego a judgment because it doesn’t favour you? You go and hire another judge to produce for you another judgment. And that is the case that we have on our hands now,” he said.
Ologbondiyan also criticised the handling of the party’s application seeking Justice Lifu’s withdrawal from the case, which the court dismissed for lacking merit and evidence.
He disclosed that the ADC had petitioned the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court over its concerns about the proceedings.
“We did petition the Chief Judge of the court.
“We said we no longer have confidence. We pointed out that this matter that you are taking on has been decided by your brother. He said no, he must hear you,” he stated.
The party spokesman further questioned the evidence relied upon in the judgment, referring to the case involving a former party official, Dr Ubala, whose resignation and subsequent participation in the inauguration of the new leadership became part of the dispute.
Ologbondiyan alleged that the court accepted claims concerning Ubala’s signature despite what he described as a lack of supporting evidence.
Despite its objections, he said the ADC would pursue the legal process, noting that the judgment had generated anxiety among party supporters and campaigners.
He said, “I believe, like many Nigerians, that in the last 12 hours, I have got more than 100 calls from Nigerians asking, ‘What’s the direction? What are we doing at this time?’
“We will definitely follow a legal process. But a number of Nigerians who are putting in their resources, who are putting in their time, who are campaigning across the length and breadth of Nigeria, one character, with a stroke of the pen, says that he has displaced them.
The ADC leadership crisis followed a legal challenge instituted by Nafiu Bala Gombe, a former Deputy National Chairman of the party, who disputed the process through which former Senate President David Mark and other officials assumed leadership positions.
On November 5, 2026, Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja nullified the processes that produced the Mark-led leadership and invalidated decisions taken under it.
The ruling also affected the nominations of candidates produced by the leadership, including former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, who emerged as the ADC’s presidential candidate for the 2027 elections.