Youth members of the African Democratic Congress stormed the Independent National Electoral Commission's Lagos office on Monday, insisting the commission list David Mark as national chairman and Rauf Aregbesola as national secretary immediately. Carrying placards and chanting slogans, the protesters handed officials a petition titled 'Demand for Immediate Restoration of ADC Leadership and Defence of Democratic Order in Nigeria', signed by national youth leader Balarabe Rufa'i and presented by South-West youth leader Adeola Olusi.
Rufa'i said the demonstration began after a 72-hour ultimatum issued on 6 April elapsed without INEC reversing its decision to derecognise the Mark-led executives. He recalled that the party's National Executive Committee met on 29 July 2025 under INEC's watch, formed a new National Working Committee and was formally acknowledged on 9 September 2025, only for the commission to backtrack after a court order. Quoting an Appeal Court directive to maintain the status quo ante bellum, he accused the electoral body of acting as both umpire and interpreter of judgments, a role he said the constitution reserves for the judiciary.
The youths vowed to occupy INEC offices nationwide indefinitely until the leadership is restored on the commission's portal and a public apology issued. Lagos ADC chairman George Ashiru warned that stifling opposition voices amounts to suffocating democracy, while INEC voter education head Taiwo Gbadegesin received the petition and promised to forward it to the appropriate authority.
INEC's sudden derecognition of a leadership it earlier supervised, verified and published smacks of institutional amnesia rather than impartiality. By first acknowledging the Mark-Aregbesola slate in September and then erasing it months later on the strength of an ex-parte order, the commission has turned its own administrative records into disposable drafts, leaving party members to question what any endorsement from the umpire is worth.
The deeper game is the weaponisation of court injunctions in intra-party tussles. When factions race to friendly judges for interim orders and drag INEC into the fray, the commission's eagerness to oblige converts courtroom technicalities into political veto power. The ADC youth claim the Court of Appeal asked for the status quo ante bellum; INEC chose to read that as favouring a different camp. Each time the electoral body flips its own verified list, it signals to politicians that capturing a judge may be faster than wooing voters.
For the average Nigerian, the spectacle means yet another opposition platform could be yanked off the ballot or hobbled by internal paralysis long before campaign season. Young ADC supporters who have invested time and hope in the party now face the prospect of their votes being rendered meaningless because adults in Abuja cannot agree on whose signature is valid. When parties spend electoral cycles in court instead of canvassing policies, citizens are denied real choices at the polling booth.
This episode fits a pattern: since 2022, at least five minor parties have seen INEC withdraw and restore recognition of their executives following contradictory court orders. Each reversal erodes confidence in the commission's capacity to stand above the fray, and strengthens the cynical view that the referee is for hire.
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