ADC focuses on court battles instead of campaigning, says Spokesman

The National Publicity Secretary of the African Democratic Congress, Bolaji Abdullahi, says the party has spent more time in court than campaigning or building its structures since it became a coalition opposition in 2025.

Abdullahi shared this during an interview on Arise Television on Thursday.

"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.

He added that despite these challenges, the party has made some progress, calling it a strong 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 said.

Abdullahi claimed that the legal issues are part of a plan by the ruling All Progressive Congress to weaken the opposition before 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.

PUNCH Online reports that both the APC and the presidency have denied any involvement in ADC’s legal troubles.

Abdullahi insisted that the coalition followed the right steps before joining the ADC, questioning why the party still faces legal hurdles.

"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," he said.

These remarks come during a long leadership crisis in the ADC, with a power struggle between the faction led by former Senate President David Mark and former Deputy National Chairman, Nafiu Gombe.

This dispute began after the resignation of the party’s former National Chairman, Ralph Nwosu, and the formation of a caretaker leadership under Mark in July 2025.

Bala challenged this process, claiming he should lead the party after Nwosu’s departure.

On November 5, the Federal High Court in Abuja, led by Justice Peter Lifu, ruled in favor of Bala, declaring the Mark-led caretaker committee's formation illegal and voiding its actions, including the process that made former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar the party’s 2027 presidential candidate.

The court also dismissed a resignation letter that was said to have been signed by Bala.

Despite this ruling, ADC rejected the judgment and filed an appeal, stating that the legal battle would not hinder its political activities.

In response to the judgment, Atiku described it as a planned move to weaken his support in the North and disrupt his presidential ambition.

A lawyer for the party, Kalu Kalu, also said the ruling did not cancel Atiku’s nomination or that of other candidates from the Mark-led leadership. He argued that some people were making assumptions about the ruling that were not included in its orders.