Sen. David Mark, National Chairman of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), has demanded the removal of Prof. Joash Amupitan as Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), alongside all national commissioners. Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Thursday, Mark accused INEC of abandoning neutrality and becoming irredeemably partisan in its conduct and decisions. The call follows INEC's suspension of recognition of all factions of the ADC leadership on April 1, after a Court of Appeal ruling and ongoing litigation over the party's internal leadership structure. Mark described the action as politically motivated and damaging to democratic integrity.
Mark, who was joined at the event by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, Rotimi Amaechi, Rauf Aregbesola, and John Odigie-Oyegun, declared that INEC had lost public trust and could no longer conduct credible elections. "We demand the immediate resignation or sack of the INEC Chairman, Professor Amupitan, and all the national commissioners. We no longer have confidence in them," he said. He maintained that the ADC had fulfilled all statutory requirements and would proceed with its planned national convention regardless of INEC's stance. The party's caretaker leadership, including Mark as chairman and Aregbesola as secretary, was formed after a July 29, 2025 NEC meeting monitored by INEC, which dissolved the previous National Working Committee.
Sen. David Mark's dramatic call for the sacking of INEC's chairman and commissioners is less about electoral reform than about salvaging his own crumbling authority within the ADC. His insistence on legitimacy comes just after INEC suspended recognition of his leadership, exposing a rift between party factions now playing out in public. That he framed this internal power struggle as a national democratic emergency stretches credibility. For Nigerians, the real takeaway is not INEC's conduct but how easily party leaders cloak personal setbacks in the language of national crisis.
