Nine parties back ADC after David Mark’s leadership sack

By Omeiza Ajayi

Nine opposition parties under the Coalition for Democracy have rallied behind the African Democratic Congress ADC, describing Thursday’s Federal High Court judgment which dissolved the Senator David Mark-led leadership of the party and invalidate its presidential candidacy as “a dangerous escalation in what appears to be a systematic campaign to eliminate credible political opposition ahead of the 2027 general elections.”

In a statement signed by Salihu Moh. Lukman, on behalf of the coalition parties, the group warned that what is happening to the ADC today can happen to every opposition party tomorrow.

The Coalition for Democracy emerged from the G100 Opposition Summit held in Abuja on 31 August 2026. Its members are the ADC, Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Democratic Leadership Alliance (DLA), National Rescue Movement (NRM), Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Youth Progressives Party (YPP).

The platform describes itself as committed to defending Nigeria’s constitutional democracy, protecting political pluralism and ensuring free, fair, credible and competitive elections.

The Coalition recalled that it had only a day earlier raised the alarm over Nigeria’s shrinking democratic space, citing attacks on opposition supporters, obstruction of political activities and “the increasing weaponisation of state institutions against political

competitors.”

“When opposition parties are attacked on the streets, frustrated by state institutions, and threatened with elimination through judicial pronouncements, Nigerians must ask whether the ruling party still intends to face any meaningful opposition at the ballot box,” the statement said.

The Coalition said it respects the independence of the judiciary and the right of aggrieved parties to seek legal redress, but insisted that “the courts must never become instruments through which political competition is extinguished.

“Those who seek to destroy the opposition in order to guarantee their own victory must understand that they are not merely threatening political parties; they are threatening the very foundations of the Republic. A government that cannot tolerate opposition has lost the moral authority to call itself democratic.

“When a government becomes more afraid of the opposition than it is accountable to the people, democracy itself is in danger”, the parties added.

It warned that the narrowing of democratic space “carries grave consequences for national stability,” adding: “No democracy can remain peaceful when citizens are denied meaningful political alternatives.

“The ballot must remain the battlefield of democracy. No political party should be allowed to achieve through institutional manipulation what it fears it cannot achieve through the votes of Nigerians,” it said.

The Coalition declared its solidarity with the ADC in its decision to challenge the judgment through the appropriate judicial processes.

It called on all opposition parties, civil society organisations, the Nigerian Bar Association, organised labour, the media and patriotic Nigerians “to unite in peaceful, lawful resistance against every attempt to undermine political pluralism.

“Let it be known: the Coalition for Democracy will not stand by while Nigeria is reduced to a democracy without opposition, elections without alternatives, and ballots without genuine choices. An attack on one is an attack on all. We will resist it together”, the parties declared.