The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has raised alarm over what it described as an alleged plot by President Bola Tinubu to use the National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Josh Amupitan to enforce a one-party state in Nigeria.
The opposition party claimed that Amupitan has allegedly been enforcing a one-party state agenda in Nigeria that is weakening opposition parties.
This is as the ADC demanded the immediate sack of Amupitan over an alleged move to enforce a one-party state in Nigeria.
This call was made by the embattled ADC National Chairman, David Mark, who stated this while addressing newsmen at the Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, on Thursday.
The development comes barely 24 hours after INEC derecognised ADC leadership, including National Chairman David Mark, National Secretary Rauf Aregbesola, and others.
INEC, through its National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Mohammed Haruna, stated that the decision complied with a court order directing the commission to maintain the status quo pending the determination of the case by the trial court.
However, Mark, during the press conference claimed that INEC’s decision on Wednesday is evidence of the one-party state agenda in Nigeria.
He claimed that over the past three years, there has been a sustained attack on the freedom of association, a core principle guaranteed in any democracy.
The embattled ADC chairman further alleged that the aim is to engineer a situation where, by 2027, Tinubu becomes the sole viable choice for Nigerians, despite the prevailing hardship and escalating insecurity across the country.
He stated: “The agenda is very clear: to create a situation where, in 2027, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu emerges as the only option left for the people, despite the widespread suffering and wanton killings going on across the country. The twin challenge of deepening poverty and a worsening security situation in the country did not just happen. They are direct consequences of the failure of this government. They know that Nigerians will not want this to continue. They know Nigerians will vote them out. This is why they would do anything to hang on to power by hook or crook.”
“In furtherance of this process, a NEC meeting was convened on July 29th, 2025, monitored by INEC officials. One of the conclusions of that NEC meeting was the dissolution of the National Working Committee of the party and the ratification of a caretaker committee to take over the affairs of the party, with my humble self, David Mark, as the National Chairman; Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as the National Secretary; as well as others who have since been serving as officers of the party.
“In addition to witnessing this process that brought in the new leadership of the party, a formal report of these resolutions was subsequently communicated to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). On September 9th, 2025, INEC then uploaded the names of the relevant NWC members of the party, based on the NEC resolutions.
“One of the officials in the dissolved NWC was Nafiu Bala, who was one of the Deputy National Chairmen of the party. It is on record that Gombe resigned from this position on 17th May, 2025. His resignation was also duly transmitted to INEC on the 12th of August, 2025. Regardless of his resignation, he decided to approach the courts on September 2nd, 2025, four clear months after his resignation, seeking to be recognised as the Chairman of the ADC.
The embattled chairman said that by September 2, when Bala went to court, INEC was already aware of the July 29 inauguration of the party’s leadership and Gombe’s prior resignation.
He added that while the case was ongoing, their lawyers challenged the Federal High Court’s jurisdiction, but the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal and directed all parties, including INEC, to maintain the status quo ante bellum.
Mark continued, “The crux of the matter is the interpretation of what constitutes status quo ante bellum, which the Court of Appeal directed should be maintained. From all authoritative counsel at our disposal, there is no legal interpretation or precedent that could lead to the outcome that INEC seeks to foist on our party.
“Based on its press statement of yesterday, INEC is pretending to be confused as to what constitutes the status quo ante bellum. If this were so, under the circumstances, what one would have expected was for INEC to approach the Court of Appeal to request a judicial interpretation of what truly represents the status quo under the circumstances. But it did not do this. While posturing to be neutral, its actions confirm that it has become irredeemably partisan, working, as it were, towards a preconceived agenda.
“With its action, INEC has left no one in doubt that it has chosen the path of dishonour and has become complicit in undermining Nigeria’s democracy. It can therefore no longer be trusted. What we say, in essence, is this: INEC cannot choose to fix the status quo from the day it took the administrative action to upload the names of the new ADC officials on its website, because INEC does not have the power to determine for any political party who its leaders should be.
“That decision was taken on July 29th, not on September 9th. With its press release yesterday, INEC has invented a status quo that never existed, because there was no time that the African Democratic Congress did not have a duly constituted leadership. What INEC has done is to create a situation that, by its own curious logic, leaves the ADC without leadership. This certainly cannot be the status quo that the Court of Appeal directed should be preserved. It is an INEC invention that is not known to any Nigerian law.”
However, the APC has distanced itself from the ongoing internal leadership friction within ADC, describing allegations of its interference as “baseless and a symptom of poor internal party democracy.”
Speaking also to the press, the APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, denied that the party has a one-party state agenda for Nigeria.
He said the derecognition of the ADC leaders was “utterly self-inflicted”.
“As I’ve always maintained, we are only concerned about our level of preparation and the effort we are making. We’re concerned about ourselves. It is the opposition that is obsessed with what the APC does,” Morka said.
He added that the APC was not involved in the internal crisis within the ADC, which led to INEC’s decision.
“Even the most recent development that everyone is talking about, the INEC decision to derecognize the David Mark executive, was utterly self-inflicted. APC didn’t do that. APC did not orchestrate the hijack of the ADC by that executive, we didn’t,” he stated.
Morka argued that the crisis stemmed from alleged disregard for the party’s constitution by the affected leadership.
“They did that, completely ignoring the rule of law, ignoring the constitution of the party they were putting themselves into. The party had a constitution about succession. So when you parachute into the party, you take over without reference to the constitutional stipulation about succession on how leadership is ordered in that party, this is the consequence,” he said.
