Leke Abejide, a member of the House of Representatives, has
resigned from the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Friday, Abejide,
the lawmaker representing the Yagba federal constituency in Kogi, alleged that
the ADC has been “hijacked” by individuals with ill intentions.
“It is a painful decision but necessary to save my political
future from those who came to destroy my former political party that I laboured
hard to nurture and love dearly,” he said.
Abejide, who chairs the house committee on customs, said he
instituted a case against the David Mark leadership of the ADC in August 2025,
noting that allies of the defendants “kept applying to join the suit to delay
the matter from being adjudicated upon”.
“Due to long adjournment, occasioned by the opposing
counsel’s tactics to frustrate the speedy hearing of my suit, my counsel then
advised me I should be looking for an alternative party to pursue my political
ambition,” he said.
“Confronted by the frustration aforesaid, that characterised
the proceeding before the federal high court, my counsel further advised me
that since ADC is leaderless and with the implication of not having a validly
elected national chairman and national secretary respectively to sign my
nomination form, which is mandatory by law before one can become a valid
candidate, I should seek for an alternative platform to pursue my political
ambition.
“It was then the mission of ADC coalition was clear to me
that their intention was not to grow the party, but to ensure people like me
who have been contesting on the platform of African Democratic Congress since
2019, without defecting to any political party and had been winning when ADC
was relatively unknown and do not have a political platform, to achieve my
political ambition but they have failed, I have since moved on.”
Abejide said the ADC was “unlawfully hijacked by
politicians” who were chased out of political parties they could not manage.
The lawmaker said he nurtured and funded the ADC from when
it was unpopular till it became a known platform.
“I funded the party structure as the national leader of the
party, which I have willingly relinquished to the current national chairman,
Hon Nafiu Bala, and I wish him good luck as he continues to fight for his
rights in court,” he said.
“I wish to state that I have willingly and voluntarily
exited and had since extinguished my membership of ADC by constitutional method
permitted under the ADC constitution.
“Let me put on record that I was not in ADC to scatter the
party I laboured more abundantly to build, contrary to the video going viral
where Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, chief of staff to the president, advised me
to stay in ADC, contest my re-election and fight for my rights and scatter the
political marauders from the party.
“The party hijackers are the ones who came to scatter all
the people they met on the ground by expelling this or that person without
recourse to the constitution of the party.”
The David Mark-led faction of the ADC and Bala Nafiu, a
former national vice-chairman of the party, have been laying claim to its
leadership.
However, on Thursday, the supreme court directed Mark to
return to the federal high court for the hearing and determination of issues
arising from the leadership dispute within the ADC.
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