Lifu judgment: what the court order says about Atiku’s candidacy, and what the ADC’s lawyer says

The certified true copy (CTC) of Justice Peter Lifu's judgment on the African Democratic Congress leadership has set off a dispute over what it means for Atiku Abubakar's presidential candidacy, according to Punch and Legit.ng.

The Federal High Court in Abuja, in a judgment delivered on November 5, nullified the emergence of the National Working Committee led by Senator David Mark. The case was filed by Nafiu Bala Gombe, a former National Deputy Chairman of the party, who challenged how Mark and others took over the leadership.

In the CTC obtained by Punch on Wednesday, the court ordered that all actions, decisions and steps taken by Mark and Rauf Aregbesola, the party's National Secretary, as national officers, from July 29, 2025, "are null, void, and without effect". Punch reports that the judge also made a consequential declaration rendering every decision of the Mark-led committee void, including the nomination and candidacy of Atiku as the ADC presidential candidate, which it says leaves his political fate hanging in the balance.

The court declined to declare Gombe the party's substantive National Chairman. It said INEC should recognise him as the only elected member of the National Working Committee whose four-year tenure remained valid. "I must, however, distinguish the invalidity of a process from the plaintiff's claim to automatic succession," Justice Lifu held, adding that any declaration entitling Gombe to act as a national officer must be backed by the party's constitution, evidence and applicable laws.

The ADC rejects that reading. Its lawyer, Kalu Kalu, said on Channels Television's Politics Today on Wednesday that the judgment does not in any way affect Atiku's bid and that people were importing meaning into it that the court never stated. The party says it has filed an appeal and an application for a stay of execution.

The ADC has called the ruling legally indefensible and accused the All Progressives Congress of trying to weaken opposition parties, which the APC has not accepted in the reports reviewed. It points to a separate judgment by Justice Musa Liman of the same court that it says affirmed the legitimacy of the Mark-led leadership. The ADC campaign council also alleges that Gombe acknowledged Mark as National Chairman at a National Executive Committee meeting.

Because the Mark-led committee organised the primary that produced Atiku, many commentators have read the judgment as undermining his candidacy. Whether that is the legal effect is now for the appeal court to decide.

Until a higher court rules, the order remains the subject of competing interpretations, and INEC's position on the ADC's candidates is likely to be watched closely.