By Soni Daniel, Clifford Ndujihe, Dapo Akinrefon, Olasunkanmi Akoni & Luminous Jannamike

ABUJA — The crisis rocking the African Democratic Congress, ADC, took a new turn, yesterday, as a third faction loyal to its 2023 presidential candidate, Dumebi Kachikwu, emerged and threw its weight behind the de-recognition of the David Mark-led leadership and Nafiu Gombe camp of the party.

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At a briefing in Abuja, the group said it is in total support of the decision of the electoral body to withdraw its recognition of David Mark and its exco in compliance with the decision of the Appeal Court.

The faction, which named Kogi State Chairman of the party, Kingsley Temitope, as its interim national chairman, also disowned factional leader of the party, Nafiu Bala Gombe, saying he did not emerge through any known or credible process to lead the party.

Made up of some state chairmen of the ADC, the faction accused former National Chairman of the party, Chief Ralph Nwosu, of trying to transfer the party to non-members, led by Mark and lauded INEC for quickly distancing itself from the Mark-led group.

Dismissing the faction’s move as opportunistic, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, National Publicity Secretary of the Senator Mark-led executive, said at the end of the day, the courts will decide.

This was as Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, said heavens will not fall if the ADC and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, were not on the ballot in the 2027 polls.

Meanwhile, the Aare Onakakanfo of Yoruba land, Iba Gani Adams, has called for tolerance for opposition parties, warning that Nigeria might be heading towards a dictatorship, if there is no strong opposition in the country.

We dissociate ourselves from Mark, Gombe  – Temitope’s faction

At the briefing, the new camp said: “We hereby disassociate ourselves from David Mark and his exco and all the actions taken by him which are not binding on us. We also distance ourselves from the Nafiu Bala Gombe group and all the actions purportedly taken by him.”

The group claimed that it took all the crucial decisions at a National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting, which took place at the office of the former presidential candidate, Dumebi Kachikwu, in Abuja, yesterday, and produced a communique read by its Publicity Secretary, Mr. Obinna Don Norman.

In the communique, the group said David Mark and his exco were never members of the ADC, having not been members for up to two years as stipulated in the constitution of the party. Norman said the congresses, which the party had slated for today, were never ratified by NEC and, therefore, not recognised by NEC.

Answering reporters’ questions, Norman defended emergence of the new NEC members, saying their coming into existence was borne out of the need to preserve some structures to liaise with INEC and prepare the groundwork for the next election.

He said the NEC remained the only legal structure of the party to deal with INEC and other institutions in Nigeria since both David Mark and Gombe have lost their legitimacy to lead the party at a crucial point in time.

Rescue mission

“We are on a rescue mission to save the ADC from being denied the opportunity to take part in the next general election. As soon as the legal tussle is cleared and the party returns to normalcy, NEC will stand down and allow the new exco to do its job.’’

Challenged by a reporter that they were being sponsored by the APC to destabilise the ADC, the spokesman denied any relationship with the APC and ever demanded or benefitted from the ruling party.

“I have never met or seen the President. The last time I saw him was when he was the governor of Lagos and I was a reporter at that time,” Norman responded to the reporter, who asked the question.

He added: “We are simply trying to ensure that the ADC is not made to lose its strong position in the political system in Nigeria through the attempt by non-members to hijack it for their own interest.’’

Apart from presenting names of members drawn from 25 state chapters of the party as new leaders, the  new ADC faction also presented the names of Kingsley Temitope from Kogi as its interim National chairman; Odion Kennedy from Edo State as Secretary; Muhammad Khala Jidda from Borno State as deputy chairman; Kabiru Hussaini from Jigawa as Assistant Secretary; Dr. Charles Idowu Omidji from Osun State as National Organising Secretary; Johnny Tovi Derek from Baylesa State as Deputy Organising Secretary; Stella Chukwuma from Enugu State as treasurer; and Obinna Don Norman from Abia State as its publicity secretary.

They’re being opportunistic – Bolaji Abdullahi

Reacting to the development, Mallam Abdullahi told Vanguard: “They are being opportunistic. But out of the 37 chairmen, how many of them were in that meeting? It is a case of when you face a big challenge, smaller ones would see it as an opportunity to ride over you.

“Some of these chairmen have gone to court in the last few weeks, but they could not see it through because the majority of the chairmen dissociated themselves from their action. 

‘’Now, they have a ring leader and a rallying point under someone who has long been expelled from the party.  I know a few of them that are reasonable and are being misguided, I hope they retrace their steps on time.

“In the end, it doesn’t matter whether they have now constituted themselves as INEC’s supporters club. In the end, it is the court that will decide.”

They’ve been bought over — Okiyi

Speaking in like manner, Queen Okiyi, Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the David Mark-led camp, said the group lacks authority to act for the party and accused its members of pursuing personal interests.

“They’ve been bought over. They are state chairmen whose conduct has been questioned, and who believe they can hold the party to ransom by going wherever they are paid. The ADC is a party built on discipline,” she said.

Okiyi added that the party will not tolerate actions that undermine its structure, stressing that loyalty to its rules is non-negotiable.

“We cannot tolerate indiscipline. If you belong to a group, you must abide by its constitution. You cannot remain a member and then choose to act in defiance of its rules,” she said.

She also pointed to what she described as past misconduct by members of the rival camp, linking the current stance to earlier disciplinary measures taken by the Mark-led structure of the party.

“Some of them went as far as selling party property and collecting money from individuals. When the party suspended them, they refused to accept it. They have continued to parade themselves as chairmen and are clearly unhappy about actions taken against them,” she said.

According to her, their latest move reflects influence from within the party’s past ranks “as a result, they have now been compromised by a former presidential candidate of the party,” she added.

Heavens won’t fall if ADC, PDP are missing on the ballot – Lagos APC

Meanwhile, Lagos State chapter of the APC said Nigeria’s democracy will remain intact if opposition parties don’t meet guidelines of the electoral commission and fail to appear on the ballot in forthcoming elections.

The party’s position comes amid a widening political crisis and internal disputes affecting several opposition parties, including the ADC and PDP, as well as other smaller platforms struggling with leadership tensions and regulatory challenges ahead of future elections.

In a statement by its spokesman, Seye Oladejo, in response to complaints by a faction of the ADC over alleged threats to its participation in the polls by the ruling party and the INEC, Lagos APC said democracy is anchored on laws and institutional processes, not emotions or political pressure.

“Democracy is governed by laws and institutional procedures, not by sentiment, entitlement, or alarmist propaganda,” it said. The party emphasised that the INEC operates strictly within constitutional provisions, stressing that compliance with electoral guidelines was compulsory for all political parties.

“Compliance is not optional. Any political party that fails to meet stipulated requirements must bear the full consequences of its own actions,” it added.

The Lagos APC cited its own experience during the 2019 general elections, when it was excluded from participating in elections in Zamfara and Rivers states due to legal and procedural issues.

It said the precedent underscores that no political party is above the law and that electoral sanctions are not peculiar to any party.

The party also accused the opposition of attempting to deflect responsibility, attributing the current situation to internal crises within the ADC.

“It is disingenuous for a faction-ridden opposition party to externalise blame and attempt to cast the ruling party as a scapegoat for what are clearly self-inflicted wounds,” the statement said.

It further described the ADC’s internal challenges as a product of disorder and procedural recklessness, which it said had weakened the party’s credibility.

“The electoral process is bigger than any single political party. Heavens will not fall if the ADC, or any other party fails to appear on the ballot as a result of its own non-compliance,” APC added.

Dictatorship looms if opposition is crushed — Gani Adams

Expressing concern over the way some politicians are using the instrumentality of the courts to unsettle opposition parties, Iba Adams warned that Nigeria is heading towards a dictatorship and urged the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, to look into the judgements and injunctions being given by some judges, mostly against opposition parties. 

He said this at the Grand Finale of the 2026 edition of Eledumare Festival held in Lagos.

While he urged politicians against truncating democracy, he said democracy must be sustained in Nigeria’s interest. His words: “As we celebrate the grand finale of the Eledumare Festival, it is essential to lend a voice to a salient issue confronting our nation’s democracy – tolerance for opposition parties.

“A democracy without opposition is becoming a dictatorship. 

‘’Even when a former military man was running our democracy, the judiciary was reasonably independent. It was not being used indirectly to disrupt the opposition parties as we currently do.

“It is now clear that the opposition already has a mindset that they can never get justice from our court, starting with the Federal High Courts, to the Appeal Courts and to the Supreme Court. 

‘’Some Supreme Court judgements will be given as a 50-50, such that the interpretation will be difficult and the government in power will capitalise on that.

I can’t keep quiet because my tribesman’s in power

“The annulment of the 1993 presidential election was caused by an injunction given to two people by Justice Bassey Ikpeme. On the eve of the election, Chief Arthur Nzeribe and Abimbola Davies went to court in the evening at about 5pm to get an injunction that the election should not be held.

“NEC decided to go ahead, stating that Nigeria had spent billions of naira preparing for the election and an injunction procured on the eve of the election could not be used to stop it.  After the freest and fairest election, on June 23, 1993, the military capitalised on it, among many other excuses, and annulled the election. It was the beginning of many troubles for Nigeria as a nation.

“I am a citizen of Nigeria. I will not say because someone from our ethnic group is in power, we will now keep quiet in the face of wrongdoings. This is about my future, the future of my children and generations unborn. If we do not speak up now, our children will ask tomorrow what we did when things were going wrong.

“As the Aare Ona Kakanfo, I get several calls from Nigerians living overseas on what I am doing about many situations going on in the country. It is time to say the truth in the interest of our dear nation, so that politicians will not put this country in a state of anarchy and then flee.

“We strongly appeal to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, and the entire judiciary, to look into judgements and injunctions being given by some judges, mostly against the opposition parties, as they are capable of negatively affecting our democracy.

“We appeal that a decisive action should be taken now so that it will not be recorded in history that when she was the head of the country’s judicial system, judges destroyed the nation’s democracy through their court pronouncements.

“In the past, the Supreme Court had ruled that courts have no right to intervene in the affairs of political parties. So, why are we having the recent recurrences whereby moles planted in opposition political parties are using the instrumentality of the courts to unsettle opposition parties?

“Take, for instance, one of the opposition parties that had a strong showing in the last general elections. The back and forth of court judgements have impacted the party negatively, such that the party is now barely surviving. 

‘’It is the same story with the opposition party that was once the ruling party. The same pattern is now being observed with the new opposition party that was formed by some coalitions.

Big question

“The big question now is: Are we creating an impression that by January 2027, there will be no solid opposition to the ruling party as the nation heads into the general elections? We have to be careful; we must not create room for crises to happen in this country.

“In the event that politicians allow politically-induced crises to unsettle this country, with the population that we have, where will our massive population go to seek refuge?

‘We must be guided in our actions. The whole world is watching. And today, the media is so multi-faceted that nobody can suppress information in the media. “So, we appeal to the politicians to ensure that they do not destroy our democracy through their actions or while trying to protect selfish interests.

“I am making this call because I was one of the people who fought for this democracy. Given the sacrifices we made for a period of six years, we will not keep quiet and allow anybody to destroy it while we are still in existence.”