The Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday adjourned a suit filed by Mr Nafiu-Bala Gombe against the Sen. David Mark-led leadership of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) until June 8 for hearing.
Justice Peter Lifu adjourned the case after Gombe’s lawyer, Robert Emukpoeruo, SAN, applied for an adjournment following the absence of counsel to parties seeking to join the suit in court.
When the case was called, only the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and parties seeking joinder were not represented in court.
Although it was confirmed from the court record that INEC was duly served with hearing notice, parties seeking to join were not served.
Counsel to ADC, Shaibu Aruwa, SAN, called the attention of the court to the history of the suit in relation to parties applying for joinder.
He said the former trial judge, Justice Emeka Nwite, had taken judicial notice of them in the previous proceedings.
Aruwa, therefore, urged the court to accord the parties seeking joinder the same respect to come and say why they needed to be joined in the interest of a fair hearing.
Besides, he said issues had already been joined with the parties seeking to join the case and that the plaintiff was in the know.
Responding, Emukpoeruo gave a titbit about the Supreme Court judgement which ordered an accelerated hearing of the case in line with the earlier Appeal Court judgement.
The lawyer, who applied that all pending processes be filed and served, sought an adjournment to give the parties seeking to join the leverage for a fair hearing.
ADC’s counsel, Aruwa; Suleiman Usman, SAN, who appeared for Sen. David Mark; Realwan Okpanachi, who represented Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; and P. I. Oyewole, lawyer to Chief Ralp Nwosu, did not oppose the application for adjournment.
The defence counsel, however, informed the court that the attitude of the plaintiff, in applying for the reassignment of the case when the matter was before Justice Nwite, had allegedly frustrated the order of accelerated hearing of the apex court.
But Justice Lifu, who said that nobody has the right to choose which court his case should be determined in, said based on the directive of the chief judge who assigned the case to him and the Supreme Court decision for an accelerated hearing, he was bound to do justice to the matter.
The judge said the court would take full responsibility for the inability to effect service of the hearing notices on the parties seeking to join the suit.
He subsequently adjourned the matter until June 8 for hearing.
Justice Lifu, who ordered accelerated hearing of the case, directed the bailiff of the court to serve all the parties seeking to be joined in the suit within 24 hours of the order.
“In the circumstances of this case and the overall interest of justice and order of the Supreme Court and the Appeal Court, this case is hereby given an accelerated hearing,” he said.
He ordered all the parties to file and serve all their processes before the next adjourned date.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Gombe, the aggrieved former national deputy chairman of ADC, had filed the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1819/2025.
The plaintiff in the suit is seeking an order restraining Mark, the embattled National Chairman of ADC; 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 leaders breached the provisions of the party’s constitution and the Electoral Act.
Gombe had sued ADC, Mark, Aregbesola, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Ralph Nwosu as the 1st to 5th defendants, respectively, in the suit.
Nwosu was the former ADC National Chairman who stepped down for David Mark’s leadership of the party.
NAN reports that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar emerged as the ADC presidential candidate on May 27 after defeating two other aspirants, including Rotimi Amaechi, former minister of transportation, at the party’s national convention.
Also, Dumebi Kachikwu, in a national convention conducted by another faction of the ADC, emerged as the presidential candidate of the party for the 2027 general election.
The 2023 presidential candidate of the party was adopted by factional members of the party as sole presidential candidate on May 24. (NAN)
