Nigeria’s presidential race has moved into the courtroom. Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja has annulled the entire process that made former vice president Atiku Abubakar the African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate for the election scheduled for January 16. The ruling, which comes just over two months before the vote, has thrown the main opposition party into uncertainty.
At the heart of the case is a battle for control of the party. Nafiu Bala Gombe, a former ADC national deputy chairman for the North-East, challenged the way former Senate President David Mark and his allies had taken charge of the party. He sued the party, the electoral commission INEC, David Mark, former governor Rauf Aregbesola and former party chairman Ralph Nwosu. The judge sided with him across the board: he declared illegal the caretaker committee led by David Mark, which had organised the presidential primary, and annulled the emergence of its officials as national leaders. The defendants had filed 27 motions seeking to have the suit thrown out at the outset, all of which were dismissed.
The ruling’s reach goes beyond Atiku alone. According to the plaintiff’s lawyer, Lukman Fagbemi, all decisions taken by the disputed leadership since July 2025 are void, and INEC must not act on resolutions adopted at its national executive committee meeting. The judge also invalidated the nominations of all candidates put forward by the party for the general elections. According to Premium Times, if the decision is upheld, the ADC would be left without any candidates, even though it has emerged as the main challenger to the ruling All Progressives Congress.
The response was swift. ADC spokesman Bolaji Abdullahi said the party rejected the judgment and had instructed its lawyers to take the case to the Court of Appeal. The party cites an earlier ruling handed down in July by another judge of the same court in a separate case, which it believes this decision contradicts. Atiku Abubakar called it a calculated attempt to circumvent a subsisting judgment and suggested the ruling was politically motivated, delivered the day after the huge welcome he received in Sokoto. He is seeking a stay of execution and insists his campaign will continue, notably in Kebbi State, while urging his supporters to remain calm.
Timing is now decisive. The case could go all the way to the Supreme Court, which is expected to rule before the vote. Vice president from 1999 to 2007 and runner-up in 2023 with 29% of the vote, Atiku Abubakar is seeking the presidency for the seventh time, with former Rivers State governor Rotimi Amaechi as his running mate. He is campaigning on security and the cost of living, two issues expected to dominate an already tense election: the same week, police announced the arrest of a suspect after an attack on the convoy of another opposition candidate, Peter Obi.