Struck Off the Ticket: A Federal High Court Voids Atiku’s 2027 Nomination

The campaign was one day old.

On Wednesday 4 November Atiku Abubakar filled a ground in Sokoto to launch his seventh run at the presidency of Nigeria. On Thursday 5 November, in a courtroom in Abuja, Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court read a judgment that, on its face, took away the ticket he was running on.

The suit was not about Atiku. It was about who lawfully runs the African Democratic Congress, the party that adopted him in May. But the judge found that the men running it had taken control unlawfully, and that everything they had done since was void. The presidential primary was one of those things. Documented

Nobody has banned Atiku Abubakar from the ballot. A court has said the party that put him there had no power to.

This article is built on the reporting of Premium Times, Reuters, Nigerian Tribune, Pulse, P.M. News and BusinessDay, and on the statements the parties have put out since. We have not read the judgment. Neither, at the time of writing, had the ADC, which said it was waiting for a certified copy. Where we describe what the court did, we say whose account we are relying on.

What the court decided

The case is suit FHC/ABJ/CS/1819/2025. The plaintiff is Nafiu Bala Gombe, who was the party’s Deputy National Chairman for the North-East. The defendants are the ADC itself, the Independent National Electoral Commission, David Mark, Rauf Aregbesola and Ralph Nwosu.

Mr Gombe’s case, as the Tribune and Pulse report it, was simple. When Mr Nwosu resigned as national chairman in 2025, the party’s constitution said the deputy stepped up. Instead a caretaker committee was formed, and through it Mr Mark, a former Senate President, became national chairman and Mr Aregbesola, a former governor of Osun State, became national secretary. Mr Gombe said that was done outside the ADC constitution and the Electoral Act. Justice Lifu agreed.

• The leadershipThe court held that Mr Mark and Mr Aregbesola emerged “through unlawful and illegal means,” in breach of the party constitution, the Electoral Act and the 1999 Constitution, and set aside the caretaker committee that produced them. Documented · Tribune, Pulse
• Everything sinceAll decisions taken under that leadership were nullified, including those of the party’s 99th National Executive Committee meeting on 27 July 2025. INEC was ordered not to recognise or act on them. Documented · Tribune
• The presidential ticketThe primary that produced Atiku Abubakar as the ADC candidate for the election of 16 January 2027 was among the acts voided. INEC had already published his name. Documented · Pulse, Reuters
• Every other ticketThe nominations of all ADC candidates for the 2027 general elections, for governorships and both houses of the National Assembly and state assemblies, fell with the leadership that made them. The party says thousands of candidates are affected. Documented · Tribune, P.M. News

“All the actions taken by the ADC as a party since July 27 to date stand annulled.”Lukman Fagbemi, SAN, counsel to the plaintiff · reported by Nigerian Tribune, 5 November 2026

A second counsel for the plaintiff, Luka Musa Haruna, SAN, put it more bluntly to reporters: the ADC now “has no candidate” for any office in 2027, “except if you are from the camp of Nafiu Bala.” That is a lawyer’s gloss on his own victory, and we label it as such. Claimed

The judgment from July

Here is the part that will decide the appeal, and it is the part the headlines have mostly skipped.

On 2 July 2026 another judge of the same court, Justice Musa Liman, decided a different suit about the same leadership. That case, FHC/ABJ/CS/1637/2025, was brought by Leke Abejide, a member of the House of Representatives, who also wanted Mr Mark and Mr Aregbesola removed. Justice Liman threw it out. According to the ICIR and Leadership, he held that the dispute was an internal party matter the court should not enter, that Mr Abejide lacked standing and had not exhausted the party’s own remedies, and he went on to declare that the emergence of Mr Mark and Mr Aregbesola was valid under the Constitution, the Electoral Act and the party constitution. He awarded costs against Mr Abejide. Documented · ICIR, Leadership

Two suits, two plaintiffs, one party, one court, opposite answers. The ADC’s legal argument, set out in its statement on Thursday night, is that a court cannot sit on appeal over a judgment of another court of the same rank, and that the Liman judgment was subsisting and had not been appealed. Atiku’s camp asks the same question in plainer words.

“Why, after that judgment, was another case filed to reopen the same dispute?”Atiku Abubakar, statement issued by Phrank Shaibu · reported by Premium Times, 5 November 2026

There is an answer the plaintiff’s side will give, and Premium Times has already pointed to it: the two cases had different plaintiffs, and whether their issues were truly the same can only be settled by reading both judgments and the orders in them. Premium Times said it had not done so. Nor have we. The Tribune adds a detail that cuts the other way for the ADC: an interlocutory stage of Mr Gombe’s case had already gone to the Supreme Court, which sent it back to the High Court to be decided on the merits. The case Justice Lifu decided was not a surprise filing. It had been in the system for a year. Documented · Tribune

Whether July binds November is the whole appeal.

The calendar

1. July 2025

   The takeover

   Ralph Nwosu steps down as ADC national chairman. A caretaker committee is formed and David Mark becomes chairman, with Rauf Aregbesola as national secretary. The party becomes the vehicle of an opposition coalition built around Atiku Abubakar. On 27 July the 99th NEC meeting ratifies the arrangement.

   Documented
2. 2025

   Two suits are filed

   Leke Abejide sues to remove the new leadership (suit 1637). Nafiu Bala Gombe, the deputy chairman who says the job was his by right, sues separately (suit 1819). An interlocutory point in the Gombe case travels to the Supreme Court and comes back.

   Documented
3. 25 May 2026

   The primary

   Atiku Abubakar wins the ADC presidential primary. He later names Rotimi Amaechi, the former governor of Rivers State, as his running mate. INEC publishes his name as the party’s candidate.

   Documented · P.M. News, Pulse
4. 2 July 2026

   Justice Liman: leadership valid

   The Abejide suit is dismissed and the Mark leadership declared valid. The ADC calls it a relief. Nobody appeals.

   Documented · ICIR
5. Late October – 4 November 2026

   Two launches

   President Bola Tinubu formally opens his re-election campaign in Kaduna. On Wednesday 4 November Atiku opens his in Sokoto.

   Documented · Reuters, Premium Times
6. 5 November 2026

   Justice Lifu: leadership void

   Judgment in the Gombe suit. The caretaker committee, the leadership, the NEC decisions and every nomination made under them are set aside. INEC is ordered not to act on them.

   Documented
7. 5 – 6 November 2026

   The answers, then the filing

   The ADC rejects the judgment; Atiku says he will go to the Court of Appeal; the APC tells the ADC to “go sort out your internal mess.” On Friday 6 November the ADC files its notice of appeal and a motion for a stay of execution, and writes to INEC the same day asking it to hold off.

   Documented · Vanguard, Arise
8. 6 – 7 November 2026

   INEC waits for the paper

   INEC says it has not received the certified judgment, has taken no decision, and that Atiku and Amaechi remain on its candidates’ portal. The Nafiu Bala faction tells its own candidates to campaign and asks INEC to put Bala’s name on the portal.

   Unresolved

The three answers

The party. Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC’s national publicity secretary, called the judgment “legally indefensible” on Thursday night and said the party would pursue “every available judicial route.” He said the ruling came barely a day after the Sokoto rally and fitted a pattern of courts being used against opposition parties that gain momentum. He also addressed a warning to the ruling party. Alleged

“Do not play with fires you cannot control.”Bolaji Abdullahi, ADC national publicity secretary · reported by P.M. News, 5 November 2026

The candidate. Atiku’s statement, issued by Phrank Shaibu of his campaign council, said “the timing of this judgment is no coincidence” and called it “part of a strategy to weaken my support in the North.” It said his lawyers were preparing an application for a stay of execution and that the campaign would move on to Kebbi State as planned. Kola Ologbondiyan, the campaign’s media director, called the judgment an “academic exercise” that had been “overtaken by events.” Neither statement pointed to any court order suspending Thursday’s judgment, and neither confirmed that an appeal had yet been filed. Alleged

“We will challenge this judicial manoeuvre at the Court of Appeal.”Atiku Abubakar, statement issued by Phrank Shaibu · reported by Premium Times, 5 November 2026

The ruling party. On Friday the APC’s national publicity secretary, Felix Morka, said the APC was not a party to the case and that the ADC should “exercise its constitutional right of appeal rather than engage in partisan mudslinging.” He described the 2025 change of leadership as “a bare-faced heist of the party’s leadership by David Mark” and accused Atiku of orchestrating it for his own candidacy. That is the ruling party’s reading of its opponent’s internal affairs, and it is labelled accordingly. Alleged

Update · 8 November: the appeal is filed, and INEC waits for the paper

Three things moved in the two days after this article went up, and each of them was on our list of what the record did not yet show.

• The appealOn 6 November the ADC filed a notice of appeal against Justice Lifu’s judgment and, at the Federal High Court, a motion on notice for a stay of execution pending the appeal. Both are signed by Shaibu Enejoh Aruwa, SAN. The same day the party wrote to INEC’s chairman, for the attention of its Director of Legal Services, giving notice of both filings and asking the commission to suspend action on the judgment. Phrank Shaibu, for the campaign: “The application for a stay has not yet been determined. INEC must therefore exercise restraint.” Documented · Vanguard, Arise
• INEC’s first wordOn 6 November INEC’s national commissioner Mohammed Kudu Haruna said the commission had not received the certified true copy of the judgment, had taken no decision, and would not act on press reports of what a court said. Atiku Abubakar and Rotimi Amaechi remained on the candidates’ portal that day, contrary to social-media claims that they had been removed. He said a certified copy usually takes about a week and that the commission would discuss the matter the following week. Documented · Daily Trust, Leadership
• The other ADCNafiu Bala Gombe’s faction told the candidates it nominated to resume campaigning and ruled out reconciliation with Mr Mark and Atiku. On 6 November its state chairmen’s forum, through secretary Kennedy Odion, asked INEC to replace Mr Mark’s name with Mr Bala’s on the portal and to reopen it for “mini-primaries,” and threatened a nationwide protest if INEC does not comply. It called Atiku and Mr Amaechi “not the authentic ADC candidates.” It has named no presidential candidate of its own. Claimed

What has not happened: no court has granted a stay, no appeal hearing date is listed, and INEC has decided nothing. As of 8 November, Atiku is still on the portal.

He has been here before

Readers of the Atiku Money File will remember the spring of 2007. A presidential panel indicted the then Vice President, the government adopted the finding in a white paper, and INEC struck his name from the ballot. On 16 April 2007 the Supreme Court held that INEC had no power to disqualify a candidate on that basis, and he contested the election five days later. He came third.

That precedent is about a different thing: an electoral commission removing a candidate. Thursday’s judgment is about a party’s power to nominate one. But the shape is the same. A ruling from below, an appeal upward, and a clock. In 2007 the Supreme Court decided with five days to spare. This time there are seventy-two, and two courts still to climb.

The election is on 16 January. The appeal is the campaign now.

What the record does not show

• A banNo court has barred Atiku Abubakar from standing for president. The judgment voids his party’s nomination of him. If the ADC’s appeal fails, the question becomes whether any lawful party structure can nominate him in time, and the reporting we reviewed does not answer it.
• A finding about himNothing reported from the judgment concerns Atiku’s own conduct. He was not a party to the suit, and no allegation against him was before the court.
• A stay or a hearing dateThe appeal and the stay motion were filed on 6 November (see the update above). No stay has been granted and no Court of Appeal date has been reported.
• INEC’s decisionINEC has said only that it is waiting for the certified judgment and will discuss it the week of 9 November. It has removed nobody from the portal.
• A rival presidential candidateThe Nafiu Bala faction wants the portal reopened for “mini-primaries.” It has named no presidential candidate, and whether INEC’s timetable allows a reopening is unreported.
• The judgment itselfNo certified true copy had been released at the time of writing. We have read the reporting and the parties’ statements, not the document.

Breaking · 20 September · the Paris awardThe $500,000 Transfer: What the Paris Tribunal Said, and What It Did Not Breaking · 20 September · his replyThe Denial That Skipped the Question In depthThe Atiku Money File: six matters on the public record

Sources

• Vanguard, “2027: ADC appeals Lifu’s judgment, asks INEC to suspend action,” 6 November 2026 · vanguardngr.com
• Arise News, “ADC appeals judgment voiding Atiku’s candidacy, notifies INEC,” 6 November 2026 · arise.tv
• Daily Trust, “INEC: Why we’re yet to act on judgement nullifying Atiku’s candidacy,” 7 November 2026 · dailytrust.com
• Leadership, “INEC Yet To Receive CTC Of Judgment Nullifying Atiku’s ADC Candidacy,” 6 November 2026 · leadership.ng
• The Sun, “Obey court verdict, ADC state chairmen tell INEC,” 7 November 2026 · thesun.ng
• Premium Times (via allAfrica), “Atiku Vows to Appeal Court Judgement Against His Candidacy, Seeks Stay of Execution,” 5 November 2026 · allafrica.com
• Reuters, “Nigerian court voids candidacy of opposition ADC’s Atiku for 2027 election,” 5 November 2026 · via yahoo.com
• Nigerian Tribune, “2027: Court nullifies Atiku’s emergence as ADC presidential candidate,” 5 November 2026 · tribuneonlineng.com
• Pulse Nigeria, “Atiku’s 2027 presidential ambition suffers major blow as court nullifies ADC candidacy, sacks David Mark,” 5 November 2026 · pulse.ng
• P.M. News, “ADC fumes over court judgment sacking Mark, Atiku, warns APC,” 5 November 2026 · pmnewsnigeria.com
• BusinessDay, “Court ruling plunges ADC into crisis, threatening Atiku’s 2027 presidential bid,” November 2026 · businessday.ng
• Premium Times, “APC accuses Atiku of hijacking ADC, tells party to resolve leadership crisis,” 6 November 2026 · premiumtimesng.com
• TheNigeriaLawyer, “‘Why Was Another Case Filed To Reopen The Same Dispute?’ — Atiku Questions Conflicting ADC Judgments,” 7 November 2026 · thenigerialawyer.com
• ICIR, “Court upholds David Mark-led ADC leadership, dismisses Abejide’s suit,” 2 July 2026 · icirnigeria.org
• Leadership, “BREAKING: Court Upholds David Mark-Led ADC Leadership,” 2 July 2026 · leadership.ng

This article reports on, and credits, journalism by Premium Times, Reuters, Nigerian Tribune, Pulse, P.M. News, BusinessDay, TheNigeriaLawyer, the ICIR, Leadership, Vanguard, Arise News, Daily Trust and The Sun about the judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja, in suit FHC/ABJ/CS/1819/2025. The Nigeria Files has not read the judgment, which had not been released in certified form at the time of writing. The court made no finding about Atiku Abubakar’s conduct; he was not a party to the suit. The judgment is under appeal: the ADC filed a notice of appeal and a stay motion on 6 November 2026; neither had been decided at the time of the 8 November update. Statements by the ADC, the campaign and the APC are theirs. The red cross on the portrait is an editorial device marking the voided nomination, not a legal status. Statuses are editorial labels, not legal findings. Corrections and documented responses will be published.