ADC leadership tussle: CJ reassigns Nafiu-Bala Gombe’s case against Mark, Aregbesola

By Taiye Agbaje

The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court (FHC), Justice John Tshoho, has reassigned a case filed by Nafiu-Bala Gombe, a former National Deputy Chairman of African Democratic Party (ADC), to another judge for adjudication.

It was gathered on Friday that the suit, which was before Justice Emeka Nwite, had been reassigned to Justice Peter Lifu following the former’s recent elevation to the Court of Appeal.

The National Judicial Council (NJC), at its 111th meeting on May 13, had recommended the appointment of 12 new justices of the Court of Appeal, including Justice Nwite, to President Bola Tinubu for approval.

Gombe, in the suit, is seeking an order restraining Sen. David Mark, the embattled National Chairman of ADC; Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the National Secretary, and members of their interim National Working Committee (NWC) from parading themselves as the party’s leaders.

He had argued that the emergence of Mark, Aregbesola and other NWC members as party’s leaders breached the provisions of the party’s constitution and the Electoral Act.

Gombe had sued ADC, Mark, Aregbesola, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Ralph Nwosu as 1st to 5th defendants respectively in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1819/2025.

Nwosu was the former ADC National Chairman who stepped down for David Mark leadership of the party.

Justice Nwite had, on April 14, adjourned the case sine die (indefinitely) following Gombe’s request to await the Supreme Court’s judgment in the appeal filed by Mark.

However, the Supreme Court, on April 30, set aside the order made by the Court of Appeal in Abuja ordering the maintenance of status quo ante bellum in the leadership dispute in ADC, on which INEC acted in derecognising the Mark-led leadership of the party.

The apex court ordered the parties to return to the FHC for expeditious hearing of the case filed by Gombe, an aggrieved chieftain of the party.

When the case came up on May 8 before Justice Nwite following the Supreme Court order, Luka Haruna, SAN, who appeared for Gombe, sought the transfer of the case from Nwite to another judge.

Although no reason was given, Haruna said a letter had been written to the CJ to the effect.

But lawyers to the ADC, Mark, Aregbesola and Nwosu, disagreed with the application.

ADC’s counsel, Rilwan Okpanachi; Suleiman Usman, SAN, who appeared for Mark; Mohammed Sheriff, who represented Aregbesola; P. I. Oyewole, counsel for Chief Ralph Nwosu, and other lawyers in the case vehemently opposed Gombe’s request for the case transfer.

The lawyers, who said that Gombe’s letter had not been served on them, described Haruna’s application as “an ambush.”

They also considered the request as an attempt to frustrate the order of Appeal Court for accelerated hearing which was sustained by the Supreme Court.

The defence lawyers, who described Gombe’s application as ‘forum shopping,” said the only good thing the application for the transfer of the matter had achieved was that the integrity of the court had been confirmed.

They said this was so because nothing had happened since the last adjournment.

The lawyers said they maintained absolute confidence in the integrity, impartiality and sound judicial discretion of Justice Nwite’s court.

“The so-called letter in a normal view, is a fundamental breach of procedure, amounting in law to an illegality and not a mere irregularity,” they argued.

They said they would have insisted that the court should go on with the hearing but for a certified true copy (CTC) of the Supreme Court judgment which was yet to be obtained, in order for the trial court to be properly guided by it.

They, therefore, sought an indefinite adjournment to enable them to furnish the judge with the CTC of the judgment and Justice Nwite adjourned the case sine die (indefinitely), pending when its CTC is gotten.(NAN)