ABUJA – The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has dismissed the African Democratic Congress’s defiance of the Independent National Electoral Commission’s decision to derecognise its leadership.
He warned the party that it risks fielding no candidates in the 2027 general elections.
Keyamo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, made the remarks in a post on his X handle on Friday, saying the David Mark-led faction of the party was relying on “emotional reasoning and blackmail” to escape what he described as a self-inflicted legal crisis.
“The David Mark’s faction of the ADC really think they can use emotional reasoning and blackmail to bluff their way out of a purely legal conundrum they brought upon themselves. Unfortunately for them, law does not admit of sentiment,” Keyamo wrote.
He dismissed the faction’s reliance on the concept of “status quo ante bellum,” a legal term directing parties to preserve the pre-dispute state of affairs.
He said those invoking it were “chasing shadows and not the substance.”
The minister warned that with a court case still pending over the takeover of the party by a deputy national chairman, any actions taken by either faction could ultimately be voided after INEC’s deadline for the nomination of candidates.
“The implication is that the ADC may end up having NO CANDIDATE for the election,” he said.
Rather than attacking INEC, Keyamo said the party should be grateful that the commission acted before the nomination window closed, as its derecognition of both factions served as a timely warning.
He said the ADC now had three options: find a new, legally secure platform; seek accelerated hearing of the matter in court; or quickly resolve the leadership dispute through negotiation.
Keyamo also dismissed suggestions that the APC or INEC had engineered the ADC’s problems, describing such claims as “purely mischievous.”
“Neither APC nor INEC prodded these grown adults and supposedly ‘experienced’ politicians to go and hijack an existing platform without sound legal advice and without properly sorting out every member of the leadership of that existing platform,” he said.
Responding to Mark’s declaration that the faction would proceed with its congresses and convention despite the court ruling and INEC’s decision, Keyamo was dismissive.
“That is fine by us. NEVER INTERRUPT YOUR OPPONENT WHEN HE IS MAKING A MISTAKE,” he wrote.
The ADC has been embroiled in a leadership dispute since 2025, when Mark emerged as head of a new National Working Committee following a NEC meeting that dissolved the previous executive.
Former deputy national chairman Nafiu Bala subsequently approached the courts to contest the takeover, after the Mark faction claimed he had resigned his position in May 2025.
INEC on Wednesday announced it had ceased to recognise the Mark-led executive, citing a Court of Appeal judgment directing all parties to maintain the status quo pending the determination of the case at the Federal High Court.
The commission also said it would not recognise any faction until all litigation was resolved.
Mark, a former Senate President, had responded by accusing INEC of acting in contempt of the Court of Appeal and called for the removal of INEC Chairman Joash Amupitan.
He said the faction would proceed with congresses beginning April 9 and a convention on April 14, insisting no law requires INEC’s presence at party activities.
The APC, through its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, had earlier rejected allegations of interference, describing the ADC’s crisis as entirely self-inflicted.
