INEC To Weigh Implications Of Court Ruling On Atiku’s 2027 ADC Ticket

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is anticipated to deliberate on the implications of a Federal High Court judgment invalidating the management of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the method that produced former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar because the occasion’s presidential candidate for the 2027 common elections.

The Commission stated it will first acquire and research the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the judgment earlier than taking a place on the matter.

INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of its Information and Voter Education Committee, Mohammed Kudu Haruna, disclosed this whereas talking with journalists on Saturday, saying the fee would take into account the event at its assembly subsequent week.

Haruna stated INEC wouldn’t depend on media reviews or accounts of the proceedings to find out its place.

“We can’t take a position until we see the judgment ourselves. We have to get the certified true copy because we don’t take decisions or reports of what the court said based on reports because the reports could be wrong,” he stated.

He added that the fee would additionally respect any subsequent courtroom order arising from an enchantment by the affected ADC management.

“Obviously, if the David Mark faction should appeal, which I am sure they will, and they get an injunction for stay of execution, obviously, we’ll have to obey that judgment,” Haruna stated.

The growth adopted Thursday’s judgment by Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which nullified the emergence of the caretaker committee led by former Senate President David Mark.

The courtroom held that the method via which the committee assumed management of the occasion violated the ADC structure, related provisions of the Electoral Act and the 1999 Constitution.

The swimsuit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1819/2025, was instituted by Nafiu Bala Gombe, a former ADC Deputy National Chairman (North-East), who challenged the method via which Mark and different members of the caretaker committee emerged.

Gombe had argued that he was entitled to imagine the occasion’s management following the resignation of its former National Chairman, Ralph Nwosu.

In its ruling, the courtroom additionally invalidated selections taken beneath the Mark-led management, together with the occasion’s presidential main that produced Atiku as its flag bearer, the emergence of former Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, as National Secretary, and different candidate nominations for the 2027 elections.

It additional directed INEC to not recognise or act on selections taken on the ADC’s 99th National Executive Committee assembly held on July 27, 2025.

However, the ADC has moved to problem the judgment, submitting a discover of enchantment and an utility for keep of execution on November 6.

The occasion’s authorized workforce, led by Shaibu Enejoh Aruwa, SAN, additionally notified INEC of the enchantment and the appliance for keep, pending the willpower of the case by the Court of Appeal.

Atiku, in the meantime, has maintained that the courtroom ruling wouldn’t cease him from contesting the 2027 presidential election.

The final result of the enchantment and INEC’s eventual interpretation of the judgment are anticipated to form the following steps within the ADC’s management disaster and the standing of its 2027 electoral nominations.