The African Democratic Congress has reached 500,000 members after the Independent National Electoral Commission delisted Senator David Mark and Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as national chairman and national secretary. The party's National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, announced the surge on his X account on Sunday, stating that membership had grown from over 40,000 registrations on April 2 to more than 500,000 new members between April 1 and the present. INEC's National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Mohammed Haruna, confirmed the delisting on April 1, citing a court order requiring the commission to maintain the status quo in a legal tussle over leadership. The commission removed Mark and Aregbesola from its portal and declined to recognise Nafiu Bala Gombe, who had petitioned the court to be declared national chairman.
Haruna noted that INEC received conflicting legal demands, including a cautionary letter from Suleiman Usman SAN & Co. advising against recognising Gombe, and a counter-letter from Summit Law Chambers pushing for enforcement of a Court of Appeal judgment backing Gombe. Bolaji Abdullahi and PDP spokesperson Ini Ememobong described the delisting as "a calculated attempt to undermine democratic structures" and called on supporters to defend democratic principles.
A fivefold jump in ADC membership within days suggests voters are responding less to ideology than to perceived political exclusion. Bolaji Abdullahi's framing of the INEC move as an attack on democracy has clearly resonated with a large pool of disaffected Nigerians. This surge reflects not party strength but deepening public scepticism toward electoral authority and leadership legitimacy. For ordinary Nigerians, the ADC's sudden appeal lies not in its policies but in its position as a symbol of resistance.
