The David Mark leadership of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), received a reprieve on Thursday as the Supreme Court set aside the order made by the Court of Appeal in Abuja ordering the maintenance of status quo ante bellum in the leadership dispute in on which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) acted in derecognising Mark’s leadership of the party.
The decision will see the listing of the Mark led ADC leadership which was recently controversially delisted by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
In a unanimous judgment of a five-member panel, the apex court however ordered parties to return to the Federal High Court for expeditious hearing of the case filed by an aggrieved chieftain of the party, Nafiu Bala Gombe.
Delivering the lead judgment, Justice Mohammed Garba held that the Court of Appeal had no business making a preservative order in respect of a case that was pending before the trial court, having determined the interlocutory appeal brought before it by Mark against the September 4 interlocutory decision of Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court.
The apex court held that the appeal that was filed before it by Senator Mark succeeded in part, even as it dismissed the aspect that challenged an ex parte order the Federal High Court made for service of processes in the suit filed by aggrieved members of the party.
