The High Court in Adamawa State has suspended all African Democratic Congress (ADC) congresses scheduled for April 9, 10, and 11. The order, issued by Justice Ahmad Isah of High Court No. 6 in Yola, applies to ward, local government, and state-level meetings planned across Adamawa. The suspension remains in effect until the court determines a lawsuit filed by the party's state chairman, Yohanna Shehu. The case is set for hearing on April 15. Mr Shehu disclosed that he approached the court after the national leadership of the ADC excluded him from congress arrangements. Instead, the national body appointed a State Transition Committee headed by Sadiq Dasin to oversee the process. Mr Shehu contends this undermines his position as the legitimate state chairman. The legal action unfolds amid a deepening leadership crisis within the ADC in Adamawa, with three factions claiming authority. One faction supports Mr Shehu, who asserts continuity from his pre-coalition leadership. Another aligns with former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, and is backed by the transition committee. A third faction is loyal to former senator Aisha Binani.
Yohanna Shehu's legal challenge exposes the fragility of internal party democracy within the African Democratic Congress in Adamawa, where national leadership's appointment of a Transition Committee led by Sadiq Dasin bypassed the elected state chairman. This move did not merely spark dissent—it laid bare a pattern of centralised control that treats state structures as disposable when they conflict with national political calculations.
The existence of three competing factions—aligned with Shehu, Babachir Lawal, and Aisha Binani—suggests the ADC in Adamawa is less a political platform and more a contested asset for elite ambition. The national party's decision to sideline Shehu in favour of a committee undermines its own governance framework, especially since he claims legitimacy from his tenure before the party joined the David Mark-led opposition coalition. When institutional processes are replaced by ad hoc committees, it signals that party rules apply only when convenient.
For grassroots ADC members in Adamawa, the crisis means exclusion from meaningful participation. Their voices are buried beneath elite jostling, and the cancelled congresses rob them of even symbolic inclusion. As leadership battles play out in court, ordinary members are left without a roadmap for engagement or representation.
This is not an isolated dispute. It mirrors broader trends across Nigerian opposition parties, where weak internal structures enable power grabs and judicial interventions become routine tools for settling political scores.
