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BREAKING: INEC can’t stop us – ADC *Vows to go ahead with congresses
The African Democratic Congress (ADC), on Thursday, vowed to go ahead with its national congresses and convention scheduled for this month, regardless the de-recognition of the leadership of the David Mark leadership that has been conducting its affairs since last year.
Bolaji Abdullahi, its spokesman, said the party had before now notified the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that its congresses would commence on April 9, saying there was no question of backing down.
A guest of The Morning Show, a breakfast programme on ARISE NEWS Television, the ADC spokesman, made the declaration against the backdrop of the commission’s decision to de-recognise the Mark leadership.
INEC, in a statement, on Wednesday, signed by Mohammed Kudu, Commissioner, Information and Voter Education, had explained that based on the review of the decision of the Court of Appeal judgment on March 12 this year regarding the case, brought by Rafiu Bala Gombe, claiming to be the authentic leader, it had decided not to deal with either side of the factions.
The appellate court had ordered the party to maintain the status quo ante belum pending the decision of the Federal High Court, a decision the commission interpreted as not having any further dealings with the two parties, leading to the removal of the names of David Mark and Rauf Aregbesola as National Chairman and Secretary, respectively from its portal.
But Abdullahi, told his host on Thursday that the commission deliberately misinterpreted the appellate court’s order as a way of achieving a pre-determined goal of ensuring that President Bola Tinubu had no challenger in the 2027 election.
Maintaining the earlier position of the party that Gombe had resigned as an executive of the party in May last year, he said he had no locus to take the party to court and therefore could not be regarded as a faction.
He said: “The most important point today is that all this is part of an orchestration of the ruling party to distabilise the opposition. And it is very clear. Why is all these escalating few days after receiving Rabiu Kwankwaso in our party. We all know what is going on.
“We don’t have an internal problem. The problem we have is the problem orchestrated by the ruling party. The issue is that today, INEC has been bamboozled, INEC has been intimidated, INEC has succumbed to intimidation and they are determined to coronate President Bola Tinubu.
“As at today, we don’t trust INEC. INEC has shown that it is biased and that it is partisan and we’re going to respond appropriately. They said they’re not going to monitor or our congresses.
“One thing we are forgetting is that Ekiti election is coming, Osun election is coming. By derecognising the ADC, you are rendering it impossible to participate in those elections.
“INEC brought a timeline. It’s difficult to meet. We’ve served them a 21-day notice that our congresses start on April 9th. Now, by truncating the leadership of the ADC, they’re also disrupting the process.
“So, you can see where all this is going. If those processes are not completed, we’ll not be in a position to go to election in 2027. That’s why I say it’s a coronation process that they’re planning. When we keep saying that there is a plan to make President Bola Tinubu the only candidate on the ballot in 2027, people think we’re being hysteric. They think we are just bandying conspiracy theories.
“All this points to INEC trying to create a chaos. Now, asking people to go and vote is difficult enough. Now asking every single person that has a voter’s card to go to their polling units to revalidate those cards few months to the election is plain anarchy.
“It is sounding uncomfortably familiar. It is only that the democratic contest is what is making it look strange. If we are in a military rule, we can understand it. But we have found ourselves in a situation where everything is being done to ensure that the election in 2027 is a fair accompli and that Nigerians will be left with no option or no choice. But we have seen how this ended in the past.
“So, we’re saying, we’ll go ahead with our congresses. We had given INEC the notice, they had accepted the notice. So, whether they come or not, we’ll continue with our congresses, we’ll continue with our convention.”
Maintaining that INEC had no basis to toe the line it had decided, he argued that Nafiu Gombe, was being sponsored to disrupt the process, tracing the various developments that rendered his claim to the leadership of the party a non-issue.
His words: “Let me answer the fundamental question that as at the time the coalition was joining the ADC, Nafiu Gombe, was an official of the ADC. The answer is no! He resigned his position, May 17 as one of the six Deputy Chairmen, and INEC was duly notified.
“On August 12, 2025, INEC received a notice. So, INEC knows that as at May, 2025, Nafiu Gombe was no longer an official of the African Democratic Congress. But that is a different matter.
“But the most important point is that the Court of Appeal made a ruling and the summary of the consequential part of the ruling is that status quo ante belum be maintained. Now, this is the crux of the matter. Nafiu Gombe’s lawyers are interpreting it to mean the state of things before he went to court on September 2nd.
“But this is not the correct representation of what happened. On July 29th ADC had a NEC meeting in Abuja, attended by INEC. And in that NEC meeting, one of the resolutions was dissolution the National Working Committee. It was on the basis of that that INEC recognised David Mark and Rauf Aregbesola and uploaded it on its website.
“Now if the Court of Appeal is say go back to the status quo, Nafiu Gombe went to court on September 2nd. This NEC meeting happened on 29th of July and he went to court on second of September, INEC is now saying, our recognition of David Mark came on the 9th of September. That’s after he had gone to court.
“But that is an administrative issue. Whether you recognised it in 2026 or 2025 does not matter. The action was taken on July 29th and concluded. INEC knew about it and it was on that basis that INEC acted.
“To say that status quo ante belum was on the 9th of September is dubious and it is contrary to what the Court of Appeal ruled. Now let us even assume that we go back to the status quo before even David Mark, at the time NEC took the decision, ADC had leadership. So, if we must go further back, it means that Ralph Nwosu is the Chairman of ADC.
“So, the court would not have envisaged a situation where ADC, according to INEC did not have a leadership. What INEC has done effectively is to violate the directives of the appeal court. And that is criminal. INEC today is behaving like a criminal organisation.
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
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