Get Guardian on GoogleBy Abdu Rafiu
The Nigerian nation is in such a delicate state at the moment that even a considerably thick-skinned and insensitive person can feel it; it is so palpable the blind can touch it and is so piercing the deaf can feel it in his ear drums. How anybody would want to drop a cigarette end that can set off a conflagration to entrap the country at this point in time beats my imagination.
On Thursday last week, a Federal High Court knocked off the Presidential election candidacy of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, saying that the leadership of African Democratic Congress, more known and referred to as ADC, was unlawfully constituted. In effect the judgment retrieves the flags of the party in the hands of several other people striving and pushing for contestation, using the party platform for representation at various levels in the coming general elections in the land. The bomb-shell came when the elections are barely two months away.
Atiku is a star veteran in the quest for power at the highest level of the Nigerian polity. His presence is what has given the ADC, a relatively obscure party stature, colour and much reckoning, thus making it a major Opposition contender to make the January Presidential election a truly battle royal. Another Opposition contender of considerable weight, and promise, and a very bright star is Peter Obi, a one-time governor of Anambra State. The two were the frontliner competitors with equally formidable candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu who emerged in the fierce race as winner and President.
Obi himself was later to defect from Labour Party to ADC. Finding himself squeezed among heavy weights, he fled to NDC. The three were the main gladiators in 2023 and Tinubu (APC) led with 8,794, 726 votes; Atiku then of PDP came second with 6, 984, 520 votes and Peter Obi then of Labour Party came third with 6, 101, 533 votes.
Rabiu Kwankwaso of NNPP had 1, 496, 671 votes. I have brought out the figures to show the implications for national peace and harmony in disqualifying any of these candidates without careful thoughtfulness and this so late in the day for that matter—about only two months to the elections. There are two other emerging contenders being taken seriously with waves sweeping across the land if mammoth crowds at rallies are of any measure of the reckoning of candidates even after we discountenance the factor of stomach infrastructure as Governor Ayo Fayose would elect to put it. That is those who only attended rallies in expectation of paliatives.
Commenting on the court judgment, Atiku said the timing of the judgment is no coincidence, adding confidently and firmly that he is still on the ballot. He pointed accusing fingers at the ruling party, APC, for kicking up the dust and orchestrating his travail. He said in a statement: “It is part of a strategy to weaken my support in the North and frustrate a campaign whose message is resonating across the country.”
In 2023, the overall scores by the leading candidates in the entire North were as follows: APC (Tinubu) –5, 507, 789; PDP (Atiku) —5, 159, 679; LP (Peter Obi)—1, 798, 671; NNPP (Kwankwaso): —1, 449, 872. President Bola Tinubu beat Atiku in the North by a fairly wide margin of over 300,000 votes.
It would be an irony that the suit leading to Atiku’s candidacy being nullified originated from Gombe where in terms of zonal scores, he had the highest harvest of votes which was—63 per cent. The performance in Gombe was followed by that of his home state, Adamawa—57 per cent and the least from Taraba State—38 per cent. Borno: 41 per cent; Bauchi: 50 per cent; Yobe: 52 per cent.
Peter Obi had lowest percentage score in his home region in Imo State which gave him 77 per cent of the votes cast. The highest was from Anambra: 95 per cent; followed by Enugu, 94 per cent; Abia 88 per cent and Ebonyi State: 80 per cent, leaving no room for any other candidate to score the crucial 25 per cent in any of the states in the East.
In his own zone of the South West, Tinubu’s biggest harvest was from Ondo State, with 67 per cent of the votes, followed by Ekiti State, 65 per cent and then Ogun, 59 per cent. He received his biggest support from the North where he beat every other candidate—5, 507, 787 votes to Atiku’s 5, 159, 679 and Kwankwaso’s 1, 4449, 872. And Peter Obi’s: 1,798, 671.
Practically, in all the states, safe Benue, Edo State and Cross River State, where Atiku did not lead, he came second. Is that the kind of person whose candidacy you knock off the ballot on technical grounds—his longing, his reinvigorated quest for the Presidential suite at Aso Rock? The bombshell came to the nation on the second day after he launched his campaign in Sokoto, believed to be his ancestral roots.
Trouble began when Mr. Nafiu Bala Gombe went to court to challenge the legitimacy of the David Mark leadership of the ADC Caretaker Committee featuring a host of renowned political juggernauts, among them former Governors, Bala Gombe, former National Deputy Chairman of the party said in his papers filed in the court that after the resignation of the former chairman, Ralph Nwosu, he was the next in rank to step into his shoes. He claimed that the process that threw up David Mark, a former President of the Senate, and other officers of the party bypassed him and as such the arrangement and the actions taken were illegal. And the purported letter of resignation on which David Mark- Rauf Aregbesola leadership relied upon to take control, reorganise and pump life into the party was fake, indeed forged.
The actions taken under the banner of the authority of David Mark leadership included the primaries for all the elective offices for the imminent contestations in January and February 2027. The primaries produced Atiku as the party’s flagbearer and Rotimi Amaechi his running mate as well as the party’s candidates for the Senate, for the House of Representatives, for governors and various State Houses of Assembly.
Lukman Fagbemi, SAN, counsel forBala Gombe said the implication of what his principal had gotten on Thursday is that “the court, having reviewed the entire facts of the case, having reviewed the clear position of the law, party’s guidelines, party constitution , provisions of the Constitution and the Electoral Act and the relevant provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, finds as a fact that they did not emerge through lawful constitutional means and that there were flagrant breaches of all the relevant provisions that we have stated.
“The implication is that INEC, which has the duty in line with Section 223 of the Constitution, has now been ordered not to recognise and not to act on all the decisions taken at the 99th NEC meeting of the Party on July 27, 2025. “All the actions taken by ADC as a party since July 27 to date stand annulled”, he said.
His partner colleague, Luka Musa Haruna, also a SAN, said the judgment followed the determination of the substantive suit after the Supreme Court directed that the matter be returned to the Federal High Court for determination.
“Today, the substantive issue has been determined and all actions taken by the David Mark-led leadership of the ADC have been declared null and void. As it stands today, the ADC has no candidate from the Presidential level to the House of Assembly, governorship, Senate and all other elective positions for the 2027 elections. They don’t have any representation as it stands today except you are from the camp of Nafiu Bala who is the substantive chairman of the ADC”, Haruna said.
When the case came up last year, the Appeal Court threw out Justice Peter Lifu’s interim order what was called preservative order. With the order, the ADC chieftains were out in the cold. They heaved a sigh of relief the Appeal Court set aside the order and asked the parties to maintain the status quo ante bellum. Mark leadership made forthe Supreme Court which remitted the case back to the Federal High Court and directed that the trial be given accelerated hearing. The result of the accelerated hearing was what led to the judgment of last week.
On Thursday, Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court said the ADC chiefs violated the party constitution, the Electoral Act and the 1999Constitution of the Federal Republic. Additionally, seeing merit in Bala Gombe’s reliefs, he ruled that the letter of resignation purportedly sent in by him which David Mark leadership relied upon to proceed on its actions was fake. “The fact that a document is certified, however, does not, by that fact alone, settle a genuine dispute as to whether the person named in it, actually signed it.
“Certification may establish the status of the copy as a true copy of the document in the custody of the certifying authority; it does not necessarily establish the authenticity of the disputed signature. The court must, therefore, consider the document alongside the other relevant evidence.”
Justice Lifu went on to say that a court could compare a disputed signature with admitted or otherwise established specimens without necessarily requiring expert’s evidence in every case. He said he had carefully compared the signature tendered as exhibit ADC-1 with those on Bala’s sworn statements and found that they were materially different.
“I am not satisfied that Exhibit ADC-1 represents the genuine act of the plaintiff. I, therefore, reject it as reliable proof that the plaintiff voluntarily resigned from his position as Deputy National Chairman of the 1st defendant ADC.”
When Bala Gombe instituted his action in September 2025, David Mark and his committee contended that Bala Gombe had resigned from the position of National Deputy Chairman since 17 May, 2025, and that the resignation was accordingly communicated to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. But Bala Gombe repeatedly denied ever resigning, saying that the letter of resignation in reference was forged. In April last year he said openly that the letter was not from him nor was the signature his.What he was seeing was forged, he said.
Of course, if Nafiu Bala Gombe’s letter was forged and it was on the letter that the ADC based all their actions, it should stand to reason that the case must naturally collapse. Nothing built on a false foundation can stand.
The judge also said the party’s reliance on the powers of its National Executive Committee and INEC’s subsequent recognition of the leadership arrangement could not replace compliance with the statutory requirement.
There is no doubt that with the rulings the stress assailing the ADC’s elaborate preparations has been complicated and placed under a cloud of uncertainties. Bala Gombe would appear to have a solid case. Yes, true. Looked at very closely, it would also appear that David Mark men sought to overwhelm him with their stature and renown. But they soon discovered that he was not an easy push-over. They had enough time since April last year to draw Bala Gombe closer, call him aside and resolve their differences. Or, was Mr. Bala Gombe angling to contest for the Presidency? Are there no wise men either within the party or in his neighbourhood he respects who can be entreated to mediate and prevail on him not to put the fate of the party in jeopardy? David Mark and company, as it has now been proven, took things too much for granted. They were tardy.
What Justice Lifu himself ought to have done was to call the parties and ask them to resolve their differences as an intra-party affair. Failing to do so has grave implications for the country should the party’s Presidential candidate be disqualified at the 11th hour along with the hordes of other contestants. It is too late no matter the merit of Bala Gombe’s case and the tardiness of those against whom he has been up in arms to throwout of the window Atiku’s determined candidacy and say he and the other candidates do not now have a party platform on which to stand. Forget their arrogance. National peace and harmony are more important and worthy of sacrifice on the part of all concerned in the imbroglio.
It is reassuring, however, that David Mark committee is appealing to the superior court, the Court of Appeal especially, viewed against backdrop and claims that Justice Lifu’s judgment is in collision with the pronouncement of another Federal High Court of co-ordinate jurisdiction in Hon. Abejide against ADC &Ors which came before Justice Musa Liman. Justice Lima affirmed the legitimacy of David Mark Committee and overturned the INEC deregistration of ADC and four other political parties.
Bejide and Bala Gombe may be different litigants, the lawyers say, however, about the same issues were canvassed in the two cases and the defendants were the same.
There are times wisdom over-rides laws, streaming as it does from far beyond the earthly limitation of human brains, which is why it is always disarming!
