Court sacks Nwosu as ADC chairman, upholds dissolution of illegal NWC

A Nigerian court has ordered Ralphs Nwosu to stop parading himself as the national chairman of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).

The court judgement delivered by Justice Binta Nyako of the Abuja Federal High Court, Tuesday, comes three months after Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) sources told The Realm News that Nwosu’s 17-year reign over the party was as good as over.

Justice Nyako has now upheld the dissolution of Nwosu’s ADC national working committee (NWC) by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party.

Citing the ADC constitution, the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic (as amended) and the Electoral Law 2022, the judge declared Nwosu’s tenure over and ordered him to vacate the ADC’s national office with immediate effect.

She also ordered Nwosu never to parade himself as the party’s national chairman. The judge noted that the constitution is supreme and declared any decision Nwosu may further make based on his now-untenable chairmanship of the party null and void.

ADC NEC is to take charge of the party’s affairs subsequently, the court ruled.

Recall that efforts by Nwosu to extend his tenure beyond the provision of the law through the back doors came to nothing in September after the party’s NEC showed him the door.

INEC sources informed The Realm News that Nwosu, who spent 17 years as ADC national chairman before the expiration of his tenure in August, was told by the commission to scrap the idea of getting another tenure extension.

In accordance with the party’s constitution, ADC in early September set up a caretaker committee, after Nwosu’s tenure ended, to plan and conduct a national convention to elect substantive national officers within six weeks. But Nwosu, who as at the helm for almost two decades, refused to step aside.

Having spent 17 years as the party’s national chairman, Nwosu was asked by INEC and other party chieftains, we understand, to step aside for another set of leaders to lead the party into the 2023 general election.

The decision, the INEC source said, followed demands by Nigerians and the party’s new leadership that the right thing must be done to keep the commission’s image in good light.

“INEC has asked the former chairman to bury the idea of seeking tenure extension as his tenure as chairman expired on August 28, 2022. Any action taken after the said date by the former chairman and the NWC is null and void and won’t be recognised by the commission,” the source had said.

“The commission maintains that by the constitution of the African Democratic Congress the only authority recognised is the BoT (Board of Trustees) Chairman, Mrs Patricia Akwashiki, and the NEC (National Executive Committee) of the party made up of the state chairmen.

“INEC’s position is that the BoT chairman must conduct a convention to usher in a new NWC.”

Nwosu’s travails, according to a source who spoke to The Realm News, began when he tried to ‘illegally’ remove Abia ADC chairman Don Norman Obinna from office. Nwosu, after the counterstrike to undo that ‘illegality’ began, also attempted to throw the party into chaos by suspending its presidential candidate, Dumebi Kachikwu.

With INEC officially recognising Kachikwu as ADC’s presidential candidate for the 2023 election, Nwosu’s influence in the party he commandeered for almost two decades was expected to end.

A court has now sealed his fate, it appears.