A Nigerian court has upheld David Mark’s position as the national chairman of the African Democratic Congress, dismissing a lawsuit that sought to remove him from the party’s leadership.
The ruling came after the court reviewed the suit challenging Mark’s authority over the ADC and found no merit in the claims brought by the opposing faction. The judge dismissed the case in its entirety.
David Mark, a former Senate president and two-term governor of Benue State, has been at the center of a bitter leadership dispute inside the ADC. Rival groups within the party had gone to court to contest his installation as chairman, arguing the process that produced him was flawed.
The court disagreed. In its judgment, the bench held that Mark’s emergence followed the party’s lawful procedures and that the suit lacked sufficient grounds to overturn the outcome of the congress that elected him.
A spokesperson for Mark’s camp described the ruling as a vindication. “The court has spoken. David Mark is the authentic chairman of the ADC, and this judgment ends all doubt about that,” the spokesperson said.
The opposing faction did not immediately issue a public response following the ruling. Their counsel was not available for comment at the time of filing this report.
The African Democratic Congress has been dogged by internal divisions for some time. Factional fighting over control of party structures has played out both inside courtrooms and within the party’s own administrative organs. This ruling is the latest in a series of legal contests that have kept the ADC tied up in litigation.
Mark’s entry into the ADC drew significant political attention. His move from the Peoples Democratic Party, where he served as Senate President between 2007 and 2015, signaled a broader realignment that political watchers had been tracking closely.
His installation as ADC chairman raised the party’s national profile. It also stirred resistance from existing party figures who felt sidelined by the process that produced him.
The court’s decision now gives Mark a legal platform to consolidate his grip on the party ahead of future electoral cycles. With the ADC looking to build its structures across states, a settled leadership question at the top is significant for the party’s operational direction.
The Independent National Electoral Commission maintains a register of party officials and recognizes leadership outcomes based on valid court orders and internal congress results. Whether INEC has formally updated its records to reflect Mark as ADC chairman was not confirmed at press time. The commission had not issued a public statement on the matter as of the time this report was filed.
Internal party disputes that spill into courts are not unusual in Nigerian politics. Several major parties, including the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party, have faced parallel leadership crises that dragged through the judiciary for extended periods.
For the ADC, the stakes of this particular fight stretch beyond one man. Control of the party’s structure determines who controls candidate sponsorship, delegate decisions, and access to the party’s national apparatus ahead of governorship and legislative contests.
David Mark’s legal team had argued from the beginning that the suit was an attempt to destabilize a legitimately constituted leadership. With the court now siding with that position, the burden shifts to the losing faction to decide whether to pursue an appeal or accept the outcome.
Sources close to Mark told this reporter that the former Senate president intends to move quickly to stabilize the party following the ruling. Plans to convene a stakeholders’ meeting to address outstanding internal grievances were said to be under consideration, though no date had been fixed.
Whether the defeated faction will accept the court’s verdict or push the dispute further up the judicial ladder remains to be seen. Appeals in Nigerian party cases have extended some leadership crises well beyond election seasons.
For now, the court has placed David Mark firmly at the head of the African Democratic Congress. The ADC leadership battle, at least at this level, has found its answer.
