Court Cases Have Disrupted ADC’s Campaign, Party Spokesman Laments

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has lamented that it has spent more time battling court cases than campaigning and building its party structures since emerging as a coalition opposition platform in 2025.

The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, disclosed this during an interview on Arise Television on Thursday, describing the numerous legal challenges as a major setback to its political activities.

Abdullahi said the party had been overwhelmed by court cases, leaving it with limited time to focus on grassroots mobilisation and strengthening its structures.

“The party since the start has been burdened by this avalanche of court cases, to the extent that I like to say that we spent more time in courts than we spent on the campaign ground or trying to build our party structure,” he said.

Despite the challenges, he maintained that the ADC had made considerable progress, describing it as a formidable opposition platform.

“But in spite of all these encumbrances, we’ve built a formidable opposition political party. Two, three years ago, I doubt if we’d be having this conversation about the African Democratic Congress.

“But the fact that we’re talking about this now is also a mark of the progress we’ve made since we came on board as a coalition in 2025,” he said.

The ADC spokesman further alleged that the legal challenges were part of a deliberate attempt by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to weaken opposition parties ahead of the 2027 general elections.

According to him, the ruling party wants to create a situation in which President Bola Tinubu would emerge as the only viable candidate in the next presidential election.

“We said it at the start that the idea is to discourage opposition and create a situation whereby in 2027, only President Bola Tinubu will be a viable candidate on the ballot.

“That’s the agenda of the ruling party. So everything you’ve seen since then is not so much about the opposition. It’s about what the ruling party is trying to ensure, that they don’t have any real challenge,” he said.

However, PUNCH Online reports that both the APC and the Presidency have consistently denied responsibility for the ADC’s leadership crisis.

Abdullahi also insisted that the coalition had fulfilled all necessary requirements before joining the ADC, questioning the continued legal obstacles confronting the party.

He argued that the disputes were politically motivated rather than genuine legal issues, while accusing some judges of allowing themselves to be used to frustrate the opposition.

“People may look at us and say, ‘Oh, why are they not solving their problem?’ But we did everything that we needed to do to go into the African Democratic Congress, and the records are there. Each time they throw these obstacles at us, we wonder what this is all about.

“It’s not about law. It’s not about judiciary, it’s about politics. And that’s why we wonder why some judges are making themselves available to be used for these kinds of things,” he said.

The comments come amid a prolonged leadership crisis in the ADC involving the faction led by former Senate President David Mark and that of former Deputy National Chairman, Nafiu Gombe.

The dispute followed the resignation of the party’s former National Chairman, Ralph Nwosu, and the emergence of a caretaker leadership led by Mark in July 2025.

Bala challenged the process, arguing that he was entitled to assume the party’s leadership following Nwosu’s exit.

On November 5, the Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice Peter Lifu, ruled in Bala’s favour, declaring the emergence of the Mark-led caretaker committee illegal and nullifying its actions, including the process that produced former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as the party’s 2027 presidential candidate.

The court also rejected a purported resignation letter allegedly signed by Bala.

However, the ADC rejected the judgment and filed an appeal, insisting that the legal challenge would not disrupt its political activities.

Reacting to the ruling, Atiku described it as a calculated attempt to weaken his political support in the North and frustrate his presidential ambition.

The party’s lawyer, Kalu Kalu, also argued that the judgment did not expressly nullify Atiku’s nomination or those of other candidates produced under the Mark-led leadership.

He maintained that some Nigerians were drawing conclusions that were not contained in the court’s specific orders.

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