Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja has declined to recuse himself from the suit challenging the legality of the Senator David Mark-led leadership of the African Democratic Congress, ADC.
The judge, in a ruling delivered on Tuesday, held that the applications seeking his withdrawal from the matter were baseless, unmeritorious and unsupported by cogent and verifiable evidence.
Justice Lifu said the allegations of likelihood of bias, impartiality and prejudice raised against him by some of the defendants were not established before the court.
The ruling came a day after the same judge delivered a controversial judgment directing the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to deregister the ADC and four other political parties over alleged failure to meet constitutional requirements.
Following his refusal to withdraw from the case, Justice Lifu fixed June 23, 2026, for accelerated hearing of the suit filed by a former National Deputy Chairman, North-East, of the ADC, Nafiu Bala Gombe.
The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1819/2025, has the ADC, INEC, Senator David Mark, former Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, and former ADC National Chairman, Chief Ralph Nwosu, as defendants.
Gombe is challenging the legality of the Senator Mark-led caretaker committee of the party.
The plaintiff contends that following the resignation of Chief Nwosu as national chairman, he was qualified to assume the leadership of the ADC.
He is asking the court to nullify all actions taken on behalf of the party by the Senator Mark-led leadership.
He is also seeking an order restraining Senator Mark and Aregbesola from parading themselves as National Chairman and National Secretary of the ADC, respectively, on the ground that their emergence allegedly violated the party’s constitution and the Electoral Act.
At the resumed hearing, lawyers to the defendants raised concerns over the status of the ADC following Justice Lifu’s judgment on Monday ordering INEC to deregister the party and four others.
Dr Suleiman Usman, SAN, who appeared for Senator Mark; Realwan Okpanachi, counsel to Aregbesola; and Kalu Agu, counsel to the National Welfare Secretary of the party, Nkemakolam Ukandu, argued that since the same court had ordered the deregistration of the ADC, the status of the party must first be clarified before the leadership dispute could proceed.
They submitted that if the ADC had been deregistered, the party was, in the eyes of the law, “dead” for the time being and could not be the subject of further adjudication before the same judge.
The lawyers insisted that a clarification on the legal status of the party would determine whether they should continue with the proceedings or withdraw from the matter.
Justice Lifu, however, asked whether the lawyers had obtained and studied the Certified True Copy of the judgment delivered on Monday. When they answered in the negative, the judge directed them to first read the judgment, adding that the deregistration case was different from the suit challenging the leadership of the party.
Meanwhile, all the defendants in the leadership suit, except INEC, had asked Justice Lifu to recuse himself and return the case file to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court for reassignment.
Ukandu, who applied to be joined as an interested party, also supported the request for recusal, arguing that his rights could be affected by the outcome of the case.
He drew the attention of the court to the fact that the party had already petitioned both Justice Lifu and the Chief Judge before the National Judicial Council, NJC, and that both had also been sued over the handling of legal disputes involving the ADC.
Opposing the recusal applications, counsel to the plaintiff, Robert Emukpero, SAN, urged the court to dismiss them, describing the applications as a ploy to delay the hearing of the substantive suit.
He argued that the defendants failed to place any credible evidence before the court to show that Justice Lifu had exhibited bias or prejudice against them.
In his ruling, Justice Lifu agreed with the plaintiff and held that the recusal applications were aimed at frustrating the speedy hearing of the case as directed by higher courts.
The judge said no responsible court of record should yield to intimidation, harassment or blackmail from litigants.
“No responsible court of record will dance to the whims and caprices of a litigant. No court must fall to cheap blackmail and intimidation.
“As for me, I can never be intimidated or harassed. A judge must be bold, courageous and firm. This is what I stand for. Court exists to do justice and not to do the bidding of any party,” Justice Lifu held.
The court consequently dismissed the applications and imposed a cost of ₦500,000 each against Senator Mark and Aregbesola, to be paid to the plaintiff, Gombe.
The matter had earlier been before Justice Emeka Nwite, who delayed hearing pending the outcome of an interlocutory appeal filed by Senator Mark at the Supreme Court challenging the jurisdiction of the court to entertain what he described as an internal political party dispute.
After the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal on April 30, Gombe wrote to the Chief Judge on May 4, asking that the suit be reassigned to another judge, saying he had lost confidence in Justice Nwite’s ability to determine the matter objectively.
The defendants opposed the request at the time, accusing the plaintiff of attempting to frustrate the accelerated hearing of the case.
Justice Nwite later withdrew from the matter, after which it was reassigned to Justice Lifu.
With Justice Lifu refusing to recuse himself, the suit challenging the David Mark-led ADC leadership is now set to continue on June 23, 2026.
The post “No Reason To Hands Off ADC Suit” — Justice Lifu Refuses Recusal, Fines David Mark, Aregbesola ₦500,000 Each, Fixes Accelerated Hearing appeared first on TheNigeriaLawyer.
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