The Federal High Court in Abuja has affirmed the leadership of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), upholding the emergence of David Mark as National Chairman and Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as National Secretary.

In a judgment delivered by Justice Musa Liman, the court dismissed a suit filed by Rep. Leke Abejide, ruling that it lacked merit.

The judge held that the court had no jurisdiction to interfere in the internal affairs of the ADC, describing the case as non-justiciable. He also ruled that Abejide lacked the legal standing (locus standi) to institute the suit because he failed to show that his rights had been violated and did not exhaust the party’s internal dispute resolution process.

On the substantive issues, the court found that the transfer of the party’s leadership from Ralph Nwosu to David Mark did not violate either the ADC Constitution or the Electoral Act.

The court ordered Abejide to pay ₦2 million in litigation costs to each defendant and awarded an additional ₦10 million in costs against his lawyer.

Abejide had filed the suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1637/2025, on February 15, seeking to nullify the leadership transition from Nwosu to Mark and Aregbesola, which he alleged was unlawful. The defendants in the suit included the ADC, Ralph Nwosu, David Mark, Rauf Aregbesola and INEC.