The African Democratic Congress (ADC) led by David Mark has filed a suit in a Federal High Court, Abuja, asking it to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reverse changes made to the party’s leadership records on its portal.
The party in a motion on notice demanded an order of mandatory injunction setting aside INEC’s decision to remove its National Working Committee (NWC) members from the commission’s records, as well as its refusal to monitor the party’s congresses and convention.
The applicants further urged the court to direct INEC to immediately restore and maintain the names of all members of the ADC’s NWC on its portal, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.
The motion, dated and filed on April 7 by Mark’s counsel, Sulaiman Usman (SAN), is in response to the March 12 judgment of the Court of Appeal in a suit earlier instituted by Nafiu Bala Gombe before Justice Emeka Nwite.
Giving seven grounds for the application, Usman argued that the Court of Appeal, in its ruling delivered on March 12, ordered the parties to maintain the status quo ante bellum.
He explained that the term referred to the last lawful and uncontested state of affairs before the institution of the suit.
The lawyer further submitted that INEC, acting under a misapprehension of the appellate court’s order, removed the names of the party’s leadership from its portal.
He said the electoral body thereby adopted a position of non-recognition, creating a vacuum in the ADC’s leadership structure.
Usman argued that INEC’s actions were inconsistent with the true meaning of the Court of Appeal’s order and were capable of rendering the subject matter of the suit nugatory and prejudicial to Mark and Aregbesola.
Recall INEC had, on April 1, removed the names of Mark (National Chairman) and Rauf Aregbesola (National Secretary) from its official website and portal.
