The Supreme Court of Nigeria on Tuesday reserved judgment in an appeal filed by David Mark over the leadership tussle in the African Democratic Congress.
A five-member panel of the apex court led by Mohammed Garba heard arguments in appeal SC/CV/180/2026 and fixed a date for judgment after the parties addressed the court.
Mark, who is leading a faction within the ADC, is challenging the March 12 judgment of the Court of Appeal. He argued that the appellate court exceeded its jurisdiction by intervening in what he described as the "internal affairs of a political party." Through his counsel, Jubril Okutepa, Mark maintained that disputes relating to party leadership are "non-justiciable."
In the Supreme Court appeal, Mark asked the court to restrain the Independent National Electoral Commission from recognising any leadership outside his faction pending the determination of the appeal. He also prayed the court to stop INEC from making changes to the party’s leadership structure and sought a stay of proceedings in a related suit pending before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
INEC did not file any process in support of or against the appeal. Other respondents — including Nafiu Bala, the ADC, Rauf Aregbesola and Ralph Nwosu — urged the apex court to dismiss the case.
The Supreme Court matter flows from a string of lower-court rulings. The Court of Appeal delivered its March 12 judgment and had ordered the parties to maintain the status quo ante bellum in the underlying dispute. The appellate court also dismissed Mark’s earlier appeal against a September 4, 2025 ruling of the Federal High Court.
The federal case dates to a suit filed by Nafiu Bala at the Federal High Court in Abuja on September 2, 2025 — FHC/ABJ/CS/1819/2025 — in which he sought to stop the Mark-led leadership from parading themselves as national officers of the ADC. Bala listed the ADC, David Mark, Rauf Aregbesola, INEC and Ralph Nwosu as defendants, said he never resigned as national vice-chairman and argued he ought to have assumed leadership after Ralph Nwosu’s exit as national chairman.
Bala later declared himself national chairman and in the September 2 suit sought an order restraining INEC from recognising Mark-led executives while compelling recognition of himself as acting national chairman. He also filed motions seeking to stop the party from holding meetings, congresses or conventions pending the determination of the suit. The motion ex parte was heard on September 4, 2025, when Justice Emeka Nwite directed that the respondents, including INEC, be put on notice to show cause why the motion ex parte should not be granted.
Dissatisfied with that interim ruling, Mark filed an appeal challenging the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court to continue to hear Bala’s suit. The differing lines of argument — Mark’s contention that courts should not intervene and the lower courts’ readiness to hear and decide on reliefs that touch party recognition — are the core tension now before the Supreme Court.
The reserved judgment will decide not only which faction the law recognises but also whether INEC can be barred from changing the party’s recorded leadership while appeals and suits run their course. The outcome will determine whether the courts accept Mark’s position that internal party disputes are "non-justiciable" or uphold the lower courts’ interventions.
That question — will the Supreme Court declare party leadership disputes non-justiciable and thereby curtail further judicial interference in the ADC fight — is the single most consequential issue left for the court to resolve.
