The African Democratic Congress (ADC) says it has spent more time battling court cases than campaigning or building its party structures since emerging as a coalition opposition platform in 2025.
The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, disclosed this during an interview on Arise Television on Thursday, describing the legal challenges as a major obstacle to its political activities.
“The party since the start has been burdened by this avalanche of court cases, to the extent that I like to say that we spent more time in courts than we spent on the campaign ground or trying to build our party structure,” he said.
Despite the challenges, Abdullahi said the party had made significant progress, describing it as a formidable opposition platform.
“But in spite of all these encumbrances, we’ve built a formidable opposition political party. Two, three years ago, I doubt if we’d be having this conversation about the African Democratic Congress.
“But the fact that we’re talking about this now is also a mark of the progress we’ve made since we came on board as a coalition in 2025,” he added.
Abdullahi alleged that the legal battles were part of an attempt by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to weaken opposition parties ahead of the 2027 general elections.
“We said it at the start that the idea is to discourage opposition and create a situation whereby in 2027, only President Bola Tinubu will be a viable candidate on the ballot.
“That’s the agenda of the ruling party. So everything you’ve seen since then is not so much about the opposition. It’s about what the ruling party is trying to ensure, that they don’t have any real challenge,” he said.
However, the APC and the Presidency have consistently denied involvement in the ADC’s internal leadership crisis.
The ADC spokesman maintained that the coalition had followed the necessary procedures before joining the party, questioning why it continued to face legal challenges.
“People may look at us and say, ‘Oh, why are they not solving their problem?’ But we did everything that we needed to do to go into the African Democratic Congress, and the records are there.
“Each time they throw these obstacles at us, we wonder what this is all about.
“It’s not about law. It’s not about judiciary, it’s about politics. And that’s why we wonder why some judges are making themselves available to be used for these kinds of things,” Abdullahi said.
ADC leadership crisis
The comments come amid a prolonged leadership dispute in the ADC involving the faction led by former Senate President David Mark and former Deputy National Chairman, Nafiu Bala Gombe.
The crisis followed the resignation of the party’s former National Chairman, Ralph Nwosu, and the emergence of a caretaker leadership led by Mark in July 2025.
Bala challenged the process, arguing that he was entitled to take over the party’s leadership following Nwosu’s resignation.
On November 5, the Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice Peter Lifu, ruled in favour of Bala, declaring the emergence of the Mark-led caretaker committee illegal and nullifying its actions.
The court’s decision affected the process that produced former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as the party’s presidential candidate for the 2027 election. It also rejected a purported resignation letter allegedly signed by Bala.
The ADC rejected the judgment and filed an appeal, insisting that the legal dispute would not stop its political activities.
Reacting to the ruling, Atiku described it as a calculated attempt to weaken his political support in the North and frustrate his presidential ambition.
However, the party’s lawyer, Kalu Kalu, argued that the judgment did not expressly nullify Atiku’s nomination or those of other candidates produced under the Mark-led leadership.
He said some Nigerians were drawing conclusions that were not contained in the court’s specific orders.
