The Supreme Court, on Thursday, ruled in favour of the David Mark-led African Democratic Congress (ADC) against the Nafiu Bala Gombe faction of the party.
Both groups had embarked on a long-drawn battle for the control of the party.
But the decision is not the final one on the matter as the apex court ordered that the Federal High Court in Abuja, where the suit originated, should see the stalled proceedings to the end.
Delivering judgement on Thursday, a five-member panel of the Supreme Court, led by Justice Lawal Garba, unanimously upheld appeal filed by a former Senate President Mark, setting aside an order of the Court of Appeal, which asked all parties to the dispute to maintain the status quo antebellum.
The disputed Court of Appeal judgement had prompted a recent decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to de-recognise the warring national leadership factions of the party.
The Supreme Court held that the Court of Appeal’s directive to parties to maintain the status quo ante bellum was no longer relevant after proceedings before the trial court had been concluded.
Justice Garba said: ‘Ordering the status quo ante bellum was unnecessary’.
He held that the order of status quo was a preservative aimed at preventing parties from taking steps capable of foisting a fait accompli on the court while proceedings were ongoing.
However, he said that such powers must be exercised only in relation to live proceedings.
He said that once proceedings had been ‘fully, faithfully, conclusively and finally concluded’, there would be ‘nothing left for that court to preserve’.
The Supreme Court, therefore, set aside the order and directed that pending processes before the lower court be determined in accordance with the law.
The Federal High Court in Abuja recently adjourned the hearing indefinitely to await the decision of the Supreme Court.
Thursday’s judgement of the Supreme Court now paves the way for the Federal High Court to deliver its own verdict.
The respondents in the Mark appeal are Gombe, who is laying claim to being the legitimate National Chairman of the party; a former Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who is the Interim National Secretary of the Mark-led faction of the party; INEC; and a former National Chairman of the party, Chief Ralph Nwosu.
Mark’s appeal challenged the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court to intervene in the internal affairs of the ADC. The appeal arose from the suit filed by Gombe at the Federal High Court in Abuja to challenge Mark’s leadership of the party.
On 22 April, Mark’s lawyer, Chief Jibrin Okutepa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), urged the court to grant his client’s appeal. If the appeal is granted, it will end Gombe’s suit at the Federal High Court and restore the control of the party to Mark and his group.
However, Robert Emukpero, also a SAN, representing Gombe, asked the court to dismiss the appeal. Similarly, he asked the court to uphold the Court of Appeal’s judgment on the matter.
The journey to the Supreme Court followed ADC’s leadership crisis, which ensued last year in the wake of the influx of top politicians into the party.
The political bigwigs who joined the ADC in droves included Mark; Aregbesola; a former Vice-President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar; a former presidential candidate of Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, a former Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Ahmed El-Rufai; and former a Minister of Transport, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi.
The politicians, who defected mainly from the ruling All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democractic Party, had adopted the ADC as a coalition platform to challenge President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 election.
The leadership crisis in the party began after the resignation of the party’s former executives led by l Nwosu and the emergence of a new National Working Committee, led by Mark last 29 July.
The development triggered a legal challenge when Gombe, a former Vice National Chairman of the party, filed a suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja seeking recognition as the party’s rightful leader under its constitution.
INEC was joined as the fourth defendant in the suit.
While the case was pending, the Federal High Court ordered all parties to maintain the status quo pending the determination of the substantive suit.
The Court of Appeal later dismissed an interlocutory appeal filed by the Mark-led faction and ordered all parties, including INEC, to maintain the status quo earlier ordered by the Federal High Court, pending further determination of the matter.
The Court of Appeal’s decision would mark a major shift in the dispute over the party’s leadership structure.
Following the ruling, INEC received letters from both factions on 16 March.
The Mark-led faction asked the commission not to recognise Gombe and to maintain its position pending resolution of the dispute, while the Gombe faction asked INEC to give effect to the Court of Appeal judgement of 12 March in its favour.
On 1 April, INEC removed the names of Mark as National Chairman and Aregbesola as National Secretary from its website, saying it would not recognise any faction pending the resolution of the legal disputes.
The dispute later escalated into a protest in Abuja, where party members accused INEC of bias and warned that the handling of the crisis threatened internal democracy within the party.
While the substantive hearing at the Federal High Court in Abuja unfolded, Mark and his group proceeded to the Supreme Court to challenge the Court of Appeal’s ruling.
On 14 April, Justice Emeka Nwite, who is hearing the case, adjourned the hearing indefinitely to await the decision of the Supreme Court.
