INEC De-registration: ADC Professional Party Jumpers Have Only Themselves to Blame!- Reno Omokri

I read the statement by the spokesperson of the David Mark faction of the African Democratic Congress rejecting the interpretation of the March 12, 2026, Court of Appeal judgment by the INEC, and expected to see their own interpretation of the said judgment. But none was forthcoming, which makes no sense.

If you reject an interpretation, you ought to at least suggest an alternative understanding of the ruling. And if you, who were a party to the case, do not have one, then on what basis do you question the interpretation given by the INEC?

When, in February, the Independent National Electoral Commission, pursuant to a court ruling, recognised the pro-Peter Obi-backed Nenadi Usman-led faction of the Labour Party, why didn’t we hear accusations that Peter Obi was tele-guiding INEC? We have to follow the law rather than our emotions, and people who cannot or would not do that are not politically mature.

The David Mark faction of the ADC clearly brought this calamity on themselves.

Rather than appealing Justice Emeka Nwite’s initial Federal High Court ruling asking their faction of the ADC to come to court and show cause why the court should not grant the injunction requested by the Bala Gombe faction, it would perhaps have been more prudent to do just that and show cause as to why the requested injunction was unnecessary.

Having elected to appeal that ruling, then the David Mark faction ought to be bound by the decision of the Court of Appeals, as a law-abiding body.

And if they feel that the interpretation of the Court of Appeals judgment by the INEC is wrong (looking at the judgment itself, I see no other way that it could have been interpreted than the interpretation given by the INEC), then the Mark faction should approach the same court for clarity or appeal to the Supreme Court.

But to whip up public sentiments against the INEC and seek to undermine the election umpire is a dangerous and desperate move by the David Mark faction.

You do not throw the baby away with the bathwater!

And sadly, the present quagmire the ADC is embroiled in is no surprise. Their move into the ADC was mercantile rather than naturally democratic.

Political parties are not like commodities. You don’t buy them in the market. You don’t negotiate to take them over, as though they were a company that you bought majority shares in. Political parties are built. From the ground up. They are not absorbed from the top down.

If you look at the history of every democratic country, every attempt to purchase political parties has failed because a purchased political party cannot become a movement.

Nigeria has had one democratically elected Prime Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, and six democratically elected Presidents, including:

•Olusegun Obasanjo (1999–2007)
•Umaru Musa Yar’Adua (2007–2010)
•Goodluck Jonathan (2010–2015)
•Muhammadu Buhari (2015–2023)
•Bola Ahmed Tinubu (2023–Present)

None of them has come from a purchased party. Each of these leaders had to do the hard work of building their parties from the ground up.

If you have to buy a party rather than build one, then how can you say you will build a country?

Not just that, but Nigeria has NEVER had a professional party jumper as President.

Rather than blame the INEC or slander the All Progressives Congress by claiming it is tele-guiding the INEC, what the David Mark faction of the ADC ought to do is realise that they purchased a defective product, and it is best to resolve the defects in their purchase or acquire another political party, because with elections just ten months away, I doubt that they can build a new party from scratch.See more, details. .