Key facts
- Judge set aside all processes that led to the ADC party executive and Atiku Abubakar's nomination as presidential candidate.
- Nafiu Bala Gombe, a former ADC national deputy chairman, asked the court to nullify the process that produced the party leadership.
- Gombe argued the party's officials were not elected through a national convention.
- ADC spokesperson Bolaji Abdullahi said the party would challenge the ruling at the Court of Appeal.
- Atiku, vice president between 1999 and 2007, won the ADC ticket in May for what would have been his seventh presidential bid.
A Nigerian court on November 5, 2026 set aside the nomination of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress for January's election, removing one of the main opposition challengers from the ballot as things stand.
The case was brought by Nafiu Bala Gombe, a former ADC national deputy chairman, who asked the court to nullify the process that produced the party's leadership on the grounds that its officials were not elected through a national convention. The judge set aside all processes that led to the emergence of the party executive as well as Atiku's nomination.
The ADC rejected the ruling, describing it as a politically motivated attempt to weaken the opposition following a large campaign rally in the northwestern city of Sokoto, and said it would launch a challenge at the Court of Appeal. "We have seen this script before," ADC spokesperson Bolaji Abdullahi said in a statement, adding that the party's opponents use judges when the opposition gathers strength.
The ruling comes days after President Bola Tinubu formally launched his own re-election campaign in the northern city of Kaduna, where he sought to persuade voters that painful economic reforms were beginning to yield results despite a persistent cost-of-living crisis. Nigeria has seen an incumbent president lose only once, in 2015, when Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat to the late Muhammadu Buhari following an opposition merger.
Atiku, vice president between 1999 and 2007, was the runner-up in the last election and had won the ADC ticket in May in what was going to have been his seventh presidential bid. He and Peter Obi, who came third last time, had been seen as the main opposition challengers.