ADC Still Searching for Respite

As the African Democratic Congress celebrates the recent recognition of its Senator David Mark-led leadership by the Independent National Electoral Commission, the recent violent disruptions of the party’s activities in Kaduna and Lagos states may have signalled the beginning of the persecution and harassment of the leaders of the party by the agents of the state ahead of the 2027 general election, Ejiofor Alike reports

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) recently scaled through a major hurdle in its quest to sack the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2027 presidential election with the affirmation of former President of the Senate, Senator David Mark as its National Chairman and former Governor of Osun State, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola as National Secretary by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Before INEC affirmed the Mark-led leadership of the party, a faction of the party led by Hon. Nafiu Bala Gombe had rejected the adoption of the party by the opposition coalition as its political platform.

Gombe also continued to parade himself as the authentic national chairman of the party.

Early indications that ADC would not be insulated from the externally-induced leadership crises that plagued the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) had emerged when three aggrieved members of the party approached the Federal High Court in Abuja, asking it to sack the Mark-led interim leadership of the party.

In the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1328, the plaintiffs- Adeyemi Emmanuel, Ayodeji Victor Tolu and Haruna Ismaila- further challenged the membership of Mark and others who were appointed as interim leaders of the party.

The crisis deepened when the presidential candidate of the ADC in the 2023 general election and Chief Executive Officer of Roots TV, Mr. Dumebi Kachikwu, kicked against what he described as the ‘hijack’ of the leadership of the party by defectors from other parties.

Kachikwu claimed that the tenure of Ralph Nwosu, who handed over the leadership of the party to Mark, had expired on August 21, 2022.

Reacting to INEC’s recognition of the Mark-led leadership, Gombe asked the former Senate president to obey the September 4 ruling of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which purportedly restrained him, Aregbesola, and others from parading themselves as national executive members of the party.

Gombe-led faction claimed that Justice Emeka Nwite made the order following a motion ex parte filed on September 2.

However, ADC has dismissed the claims in a statement issued by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, which clarified that Justice Nwite, on September 4, 2025, rejected an ex parte application brought by Gombe.

According to the statement, the judge instead ordered that the defendants be put on notice, and adjourned the matter to September 15, 2025, for further hearing.

However, with the recent incidents in Kaduna and Lagos states where suspected agents of the state allegedly disrupted the political activities of the ADC, it is not yet Uhuru for the party.

Violence had erupted at the ADC meeting in Kaduna when suspected state-sponsored political thugs stormed the event, attacking participants and vandalising property.

A chieftain of ADC and former governor of the state, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, who attended the event, condemned the attack, describing it as “a dangerous descent into lawlessness.”

He alleged that senior police officers at the scene, including an Assistant Commissioner of Police, “stood by and watched” as the violence unfolded.

But a statement issued by the Kaduna State Police Command’s Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Mansir Hassan, the police claimed that preliminary findings showed that “political gangsters and thugs attached to the former governor” were involved in the shooting that disrupted public peace and order in the state.

In what was perceived as harassment of opposition elements by the police, the state police command sealed the ADC secretariat and subsequently invited El-Rufai and other ADC leaders for questioning for alleged “conspiracy, incitement, mischief, and disturbance of public peace in the state”.

In a letter dated September 4, 2025, signed by Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department, DCP Uzairu Abdullahi, the state chairman of the ADC was directed to produce El-Rufai and six other individuals on September 8, 2025.

In response, El-Rufai, according to a statement issued by his media aide, Muyiwa Adekeye, dragged the state’s Commissioner of Police (CP), Muhammad Rabiu, to the Police Service Commission (PSC), over what he described as “unprofessional conduct, abuse of office, and serial violations” since the CP assumed office on December 30, 2024

Reacting to the violence, ADC National Vice Chairman (North-West) Jafaru Sani described the attack as “sad and unfortunate.”

However, the Secretary of APC in Kaduna State, Alhaji Yahaya Baba-Pate, denied any involvement of the ruling party, insisting that the APC does not sponsor or support political thuggery.

Barely 24 hours after summoning El-Rufai, the police also sealed the venue for the September 6 meeting of ADC in Alimosho area of Lagos after suspected political thugs invaded the venue. 

The meeting was organised to receive the Lagos State governorship candidate of the LP in the 2023 general election, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, into the ADC.

Shortly after the kick-off of the programme, miscreants stormed the venue and sacked all the participants, and also inflicted varying degrees of injuries on their victims.

Reacting to the development, Rhodes-Vivour expressed disappointment in what he described as the use of a state institution like the police to undermine the party.

The two incidents in Kaduna and Lagos states have heightened the fears that some state governments might give ADC leaders the same treatment meted to Atiku’s presidential campaign team in Rivers State during the campaigns for the 2023 general election.

It is on record that the agents of the Rivers State government denied Atiku and his campaign team a venue for PDP’s presidential campaign rally in the state.

Many have wondered why the police, which provided adequate security to the ruling APC when its leaders held zonal and state rallies across the country, received defectors from other parties and endorsed President Bola Tinubu and some governors for a second term, are preventing an opposing party from holding similar meetings.

Watchers of the Kaduna and Lagos incidents believe that as the 2027 elections are approaching, the ADC should have cause to worry over two major factors. 

The first factor is the desperate ambition of some of its promoters, which is mostly driven by selfish interest and a desire for personal revenge against Tinubu.

This ambition, political analysts say, will make it impossible for the opposition coalition to form a united front against the APC.

The second factor, according to analysts, is that the agents of the federal government and many state governments may shrink the political space against the leaders of the party and subject them to persecution and harassment.

Despite having been recognised by INEC, ADC leadership should brace up for tougher times ahead.