Supreme Court Set To Deliver Decisive Ruling On ADC, PDP Leadership Disputes

Supreme Court set to deliver judgement on leadership disputes in ADC and PDP, ahead of both parties’ participation in 2027 elections.

After nearly 10 days of anxiety and worries, the Supreme Court will today, April 30, deliver a “make or mar” verdict in the appeal surrounding the leadership tussles in both African Democratic Congress (ADC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The judgement will be delivered exactly nine days after the five-member panel of justices of the apex court reserved their verdict in the appeals surrounding the authentic leadership of the two opposition parties.

That was as the Abuja division of the Federal High Court again issued an order restraining Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognising or participating in states congresses of ADC not conducted by their executives.

The order came barely six months after the same court barred INEC from participating or recognising the outcome of the national convention of PDP, which held on November 15 and 16, 2025, in Ibadan.

However, today’s verdict of the apex court would either draw the curtain on the hopes of ADC and the Tanimu Turaki-led PDP of participating in the 2027 general election or provide fresh vigour for ADC, the main opposition coalition, and PDP to try to wrest power from President Bola Tinubu and his All Progressives Congress (APC), come 2027.

The five-member panel led by Justice Mohammed Garba had last Wednesday announced that judgement had been reserved to a date to be communicated to parties. That was shortly after lawyers representing ADC and PDP in the different appeals adopted their processes as their briefs of argument for and against the appeals,

THISDAY, on Wednesday, learnt that the apex court was set to deliver its verdict on the ADC and PDP appeals today.

In the event the appeal succeeds it would clear the coast for the David Mark-led leadership to participate and field candidates in all elective offices in the 2027 general election.

But if the appeal fails, ADC would be shut out of the polls on the grounds that it did not have a leadership that would conduct and supervise the selection of its candidates in the general election, ditto for the Turaki-led PDP.

For ADC, the appeal set for judgement is between the Mark leadership and former Deputy National Chairman of the party, Nafiu Bala Gombe.

At the last proceedings, Jibrin Okutepa, SAN, who represented Mark, urged the apex court to allow the appeal, on the grounds that the apex court had in a judgement delivered on March 21, 2025, put an end to the issue before the court, when it held that, “no court has jurisdiction to entertain cases bordering on internal affairs of political parties.”

Okutepa urged the apex court to allow the appeal and hold that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to entertain a suit bordering on ADC’s internal matters.

However, Robert Emukpero, SAN, who represented the first respondent, Gombe, urged the apex court to reject the appeal and affirm the judgement of the lower court, which held that the case of the appellant was premature and dismissed it.

After taking arguments from all parties, Justice Mohammed Garba, who presided over the proceedings, announced that judgement was reserved to a date that would be communicated to parties.

Yet, the appellate court had in a ruling in the appeal filed by the Mark-led leadership against the ruling of the Federal High Court, Abuja, ordered status quo ante bellum.

Based on the ruling of the appellate court, INEC withdrew the recognition accorded the Mark-led executive as the authentic leadership of ADC.

Gombe had last year dragged the Mark-led executive before Justice Emeka Nwite to challenge the leadership of the party.

He had among others sought an order restraining the Mark-led leadership from parading itself as leaders of ADC, and claimed that he remained the authentic leader of the party, following the resignation of the then chairman and other members of the executive.

Mark, it would be recalled, was announced the chairman of an interim national executive of ADC at a meeting in Abuja, last year, with his chairmanship substantiated at the convention of the party held recently in Abuja.

However, Nwite declined to issue a restraining order against the Mark-led leadership but rather ordered the applicant to put the defendants on notice.

Reacting, Mark approached the appellate court to challenge the jurisdiction of Nwite to entertain the suit by Gombe, in the first place.

While insisting that the trial court could not entertain the suit by Gombe, for being an internal matter of ADC, Mark also argued that the trial court became functus officio, when the judge refused the grant of the restraining order against the Mark-led leadership.

But, the appellate court, in its judgement last month, dismissed Mark’s appeal and returned the case to the trial court.

While the appellate court had ordered accelerated hearing in the matter, it went ahead to order status quo ante bellum, an order which INEC acted upon to de-recognise the Mark leadership as well as remove their names from its portal.

Displeased, Mark approached the Supreme Court to set aside the ruling of the appellate court.

Only a few days ago, ADC pleaded with the Supreme Court to deliver its judgement in the appeal within the next three days.

ADC, in a letter to Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, stated that failure of the apex court to deliver judgement within the period would jeopardise the chances of the party in the 2027 general election, as well as dash the hope of millions of Nigerians intending to vote for ADC and its candidates at the general election slated for early January next year.

In the letter dated April 28, the party’s lead counsel, Mr Shuaibu Aruwa, SAN, recalled that the apex court “graciously heard expeditiously on April 22, 2026 and judgement was thereafter reserved to a date to be communicated by the court”.

Aruwa stated, however, that they were “most respectfully constrained to request for the CJN’s kind intervention and directive in ensuring that the judgement was rendered timeously”, on the grounds that INEC, the fourth Respondent in the said appeal, purportedly, acting pursuant to the judgement of the lower court in Appeal No: CA/ABJ/145/2026, had removed or de-recognised the leadership of ADC.

The senior lawyer submitted that the action of INEC had left ADC without leadership at the moment even though ADC remained a recognised registered political party in Nigeria.

In addition, ADC drew the attention of the CJN to INEC’s timetable for the 2027 general elections and the activities in readiness, which it said had already commenced.