A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has struck out a suit brought before it by former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, praying for the nullification of ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s emergence as the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in the 2027 election, among other reliefs.
In a ruling on Friday, Justice Joyce Abdulmalik struck out the suit after Amaechi’s counsel, Jibrin Okutepa, SAN, applied to withdraw it.
When the case was mentioned on Friday, Okutepa told the court that the application for discontinuance was filed after parties settled their differences and urged the court to strike out the suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1215/2026, with Abubakar, the ADC, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) listed as defendants.
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Amaechi had filed the suit shortly after Atiku emerged as ADC’s presidential candidate, querying the competence of the process leading to his (Abubakar’s) emergence on May 25.
He claimed that the ADC’s primary election of May 25 was conducted in breach of Section 77(5) and (6) of the Electoral Act, 2026, the ADC’s constitution and sections 2, 2.1 and 2.2 of the ADC’s guidelines for the conduct of primary elections for the nomination of candidates for the 2027 general elections.
Amaechi raised five questions for the court’s determination and sought 11 reliefs, including an order restraining Abubakar from parading himself or presenting himself for election as the presidential candidate of ADC at the 2027 general elections on the premise that he (Amaechi) won the election held on May 25.
He also prayed the court to issue an order restraining INEC from recognising Abubakar as ADC’s presidential candidate.
In a supporting affidavit he personally deposed to, Amaechi claimed that the entire process of the election was done in breach of and in contravention of the Electoral Act, 2026; the ADC’s Constitution, 2026; and the guidelines for the conduct of primary elections for the nomination of candidates for the 2027 general elections as published by the party.
He stated that the Electoral Act, 2026 makes it mandatory that every political party in Nigeria shall maintain a digital register of its members containing the names, sex, date of birth, address, state, local government, ward, polling unit, National Identity Card Number and photograph of all of its members in both hard and soft copies.
Amaechi stated that he knew that each political party was expected to submit such a membership register to INEC not later than 21 days before the date fixed for the party primaries, congresses, and conventions.
He said he knew that the Electoral Act makes it mandatory that ADC, being a political party, was expected to use the membership register for the accreditation of voters during its presidential primary elections to ensure that only persons whose names appear on the register were allowed to vote and be voted for.
He stated that ADC did not use any membership register for the presidential primary election of the party held on May 25.
Amaechi said, instead, the ADC relied on the procedure set out in Section 10.8(6) of its guidelines, adding that he was aware that the ADC did not apply to INEC to obtain a certified true copy of its membership register across the various states and electoral wards of Nigeria for use for accreditation during the said election.
He claimed to have been present and monitored the primary election at various electoral wards that make up his local government, adding that the final declaration of result form made on May 27 was unsigned, with no column for signatures and names of the election committee members who authored it.
Amaechi further claimed that the names and signatures of his agent(s) were not on the form and the document was without a date, adding that he wrote to the National Organising Secretary (NOS) of the ADC, requesting certified true copies of the membership register used by the party for accreditation of voters during the poll.
Amaechi said he received a response from the NOS that membership registered was not used for the election, adding that the revelation made him write a petition to the presidential appeal committee of the party, pursuant to Section 11 of the guidelines for the conduct of the election.
The ex-governor of Rivers State said he later wrote a letter to the National Chairman of the party, David Mark, drawing his attention to the failure of the appeal committee to communicate its decision to him.
He stated that his decision to sue was because of the alleged failure by Mark to address the concerns he raised regarding the said presidential primary election.