Abuja — The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has rejected the Federal High Court judgment that nullified its David Mark-led leadership and invalidated the process that produced former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as its presidential candidate for the 2027 elections.
In a statement signed by its National National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, on Thursday barely 24 hours after the massive turnout at the ADC presidential campaign rally in Sokoto, exposed what it considers the growing desperation of the APC.
The party accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of attempting to weaken the opposition and prevent the ADC from participating effectively in the 2027 elections.
“We have reasons to believe that the judgment had long been written on this case. The Sokoto rally was simply a trigger that stampeded its delivery”, It stated.
“Yesterday, Nigerians came out in their hundreds of thousand to demonstrate their support for the ADC and our promise of making life affordable for them. Today, they are being told that the party that they support and the candidates that they supported at all levels could be erased by the stroke of a reckless judicial pen”.
The opposition party a questioned “whether those behind the flawed judgement” had considered its far-reaching implications for the country, and questioned the legal basis of the ruling, pointing to an earlier Federal High Court decision which it said had recognised the legitimacy of the Mark-led leadership.
It warned that the attempt to invalidate the party’s leadership could affect thousands of candidates contesting elections at the local, state and federal levels.
“Do these people understand what they are playing with? This is not about Atiku or David Mark. It is about the democratic rights of Nigerians to freely choose their own leaders. It is about the rights of thousands of candidates to participate in democratic process”, it added.
The ADC maintained that the judgment was legally indefensible and would be challenged at the Court of Appeal through every available judicial process, insisting that it would not abandon its political activities ahead of 2027 elections.
-9News Nigeria.
