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Appeal Court dismisses David Mark’s appeal in ADC leadership dispute
The Court of Appeal in Abuja has dismissed an appeal filed by former Senate President and current National Chairman of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Senator David Mark, in relation to the ongoing leadership dispute in the party.
Mark had appealed a September 4, 2025, ruling by Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja, refusing to grant some injunctive reliefs contained in an ex parte application filed by a chieftain of the party, Nafiu Bala Gombe
Gombe, a former Deputy National Chairman of ADC, who is laying claim to the leadership of the party, had filed an ex parte application along with his substantive suit, challenging, among others, the emergence of Mark and Rauf Aregbesola as National Chairman and National Secretary of the party.
He had, in the application, sought interlocutory injunctions to restrain, among others, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognising Mark and Aregbesola as leaders of the ADC.
Gombe’s lawyer moved the application on September 4, 2025, and in his ruling, Justice Nwite held that the court would not grant the ex parte application, but directed the applicant to serve it on the respondents for them to show cause why the reliefs sought in the application should not be granted.
The respondents, who are defendants in the substantive suit, are the ADC, Mark, Aregbesola, INEC, and Chief Ralph Nwosu (the party’s immediate past National Chairman).
Mark appealed the September 4, 2025, ruling, claiming that the trial judge had refused the ex parte application and no longer had the jurisdiction to conduct another hearing on it.
He claimed that, as against the impression created in the ruling that the judge merely directed the adverse parties to be put on notice of the ex parte application, the enrolled order revealed that the application was refused.
In its judgment on Thursday in the appeal marked: CA/ABJ/CV/145/2026, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, led by Justice Uchechukwu Onyemenam, upheld the objection raised by Gombe, through his team of lawyers led by Luka Musa Haruna (SAN), that the appeal was incompetent and that it was based on issues not reflected in the ruling of the trial court.
In the lead judgment, Justice Onyemenam also found that the issue of jurisdiction raised in Mark’s appeal was also an issue in a preliminary objection he filed before the trial court, which was yet to be determined.
She held that the Court of Appeal cannot review an issue that has not been determined by the trial court, adding that Mark’s claim, which the Justice Nwite refused the ex parte application, was not contained in the ruling read in open court by the judge.
Justice Onyemenam further held that Mark was wrong to have relied on an enrolled order drawn by the Registrar of the court to file an appeal rather than the ruling written and read by the judge.
She held that the correct record of any ruling or judgment of a court is the one read by the judge not the summary, which the enrolled order represents.
In deciding the case on the merit, Justice Onyemenam further held that the appeal was incompetent because the notice of appeal was invalid l, having been filed with first obtaining the leave of the court, the appeal being an interlocutory one.
She held that the directive contained in the ruling appeal against was an interlocutory exercise of the trial judge’s discretionary power to regulate proceedings in his court, which could only be appealed against after the leave of either the trial court or the Court of Appeal must have been obtained.
The judge said a careful examination of the ruling showed that the trial court did not determine the ex parte application, but merely exercised its discretion to direct that the adverse party be put on notice to show cause why the relief sought should not be granted.
She added that the order, directing that the adverse parties be put on notice for them to show cause, could not, by any stretch of imagination, be construed as a final determination of the ex parte application.
Justice Onyemenam proceeded to dismiss the appeal for being unmeritorious and awarded a cost of N2million against Mark.
She also ordered an accelerated hearing in the substantive suit still pending before the Federal High Court and also issued an order for parties to maintain the status quo to preserve the subject of the dispute.
Gombe is, in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1819/2025, among others, praying the court to void the emergence of the Mark-led leadership of the party.
Other members of the panel – Justices Mohammed Mustapha and Okon Abang – agreed with the lead judgment.
Japa on reverse lane as the United States Department of Homeland Security, DHS, has updated its list of Nigerians facing removal from the country, reducing the number to 112 and publishing their names and photographs online.
The latest list features Nigerians from different parts of the country and was published through the DHS official website.
Among those listed are Cletus Onyali, Olaolu Alabi, Marcus Unigwe, Mkpouto Etukudoh, Blessing Uchanma, Olaniyi Ojikutu, Richard Ugbah, Oluwamuyiwa Olawoye, Anthony Asanya and Ebele Agbasiele
Others identified on the list include Izuchukwu Okoye, Olufemi Olufisayo Olutiola, Abiemwense Obanor, Chibuzo Nwaonu, Oluchi Jennifer Chimdimma Chime, Ifeanyi Okoro, Oluwaseun Kassim, Quazeem Adeyinka and Talatu Dada.
The complete list contains 112 names, with the photographs and details of the other individuals available through the DHS online portal.
The publication comes amid stepped-up immigration enforcement by the US government, particularly involving undocumented immigrants and individuals with outstanding removal orders.
It also comes against the backdrop of efforts by US authorities to obtain increased cooperation from foreign governments in receiving their nationals who have been ordered to leave the United States.
Nigeria has previously faced pressure from the US over the repatriation of its nationals subject to deportation.
The updated publication provides public access to the identities and photographs of the Nigerians currently identified by DHS for removal from the United States.
The Department of State Services, DSS, on Thursday re-arraigned five men accused of complicity in the May 15 kidnap of pupils and teachers in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State and the subsequent killing of two of the victims.
They were arraigned on a seven-count amended charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/438/2026, filed by the DSS on behalf of the Federal Government.
The defendants, accused of being members of the Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina fi-Biladis Sudan (ANSARU) terrorist group, are Mahmud Muhammad (aka Abu Bara’a, Abbas Mukhtar); Abubakar Abbas (aka Isah Adam, Mallam Mahmuda Al-Nigeri); Abdulrazak Umar (aka Abu Khalifa/Abu Khalid); Yunusa Musa (aka Abu Yunusa Bin Musa); and Shamsu Adamu Sani (aka Abu Itisar).
All five defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges when they were read to them by the Registrar of the court.
The Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation (DPPF), Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, who led the DSS legal team, applied for the immediate trial of the defendants in line with the provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015.
He also applied for the names of witnesses lined up to testify in the trial to be shielded and for them to be permitted to wear masks to ensure their protection.
Following no objection from counsel to the defendants, Bala Dakum, Justice Salim Ibrahim granted the request of the DSS counsel.
At the time of filing this report, arrangements for the full-scale trial were being put in place.
LAGOS — A post-mortem examination conducted by the Department of Pathology and Forensic Medicine at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) has confirmed that 20-year-old journalist Pelumi Onifade died from a penetrating firearm injury to the abdomen.
The finding is contained in a six-page autopsy report dated July 30, 2026, and submitted to the Lagos State Coroner’s Court investigating the circumstances surrounding the young journalist’s death during the October 2020 #EndSARS protests.
According to the report, Onifade died from massive haemoperitoneum, a severe accumulation of blood in the abdominal cavity, caused by a high-velocity projectile that penetrated his abdomen.
The forensic finding provides medical evidence establishing a gunshot injury as the cause of death, while the circumstances surrounding who fired the shot and the events that followed remain matters before the coroner’s proceedings.
How Onifade Died
Onifade was a 200-level History student of Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED) and worked as an intern reporter with Gboah TV, a Lagos-based online news platform.
On October 24, 2020, during the nationwide #EndSARS protests against police brutality, he was assigned to cover an attempted looting at a government palliative storage facility in the Abattoir area of Oko-Oba, Agege, Lagos.
According to accounts presented by his family and colleagues, Onifade was wearing a press jacket and carrying reporting equipment when officers attached to the Lagos State Task Force opened fire while attempting to disperse the crowd.
He was reportedly struck by a bullet and subsequently taken away in a police van, commonly referred to as a Black Maria.
A colleague who was with him at the scene reportedly attempted to identify him as a journalist and explain that he was carrying camera equipment, but those efforts were unsuccessful.
Onifade was not seen alive again after that incident.
Family Searched Police Stations, Hospitals
Following his disappearance, his family and colleagues searched police stations, detention facilities and hospitals across Lagos in an attempt to establish his whereabouts.
According to the family, police authorities denied having him in custody.
Six days later, on October 30, 2020, the family located his body at the mortuary of Ikorodu General Hospital, where it had been registered as a “brought-in-dead” case under body number 1385.
The discovery triggered years of demands for an independent investigation into how the young journalist died and how his remains ended up in the mortuary.
DNA Test Identified the Body
The identity of the body was subsequently confirmed through forensic DNA testing.
Results from the Lagos State DNA and Forensic Centre established a match between the unidentified body bearing tag number 1385 and reference samples obtained from Onifade’s parents.
The DNA confirmation provided a crucial breakthrough after years of uncertainty surrounding the whereabouts and identity of the missing journalist.
Court Ordered Coroner’s Inquest
The search for accountability later moved into the courts.
In July 2024, Justice Ayokunle Olayinka Faji of the Federal High Court in Lagos ordered the Lagos State Government and the police to conduct a coroner’s inquest into Onifade’s death.
The objective of the inquest is to establish the circumstances surrounding his death and determine the facts surrounding the actions of the security personnel involved.
The ongoing proceedings before the Lagos State Coroner’s Court are being presided over by Magistrate Temitope Oladele.
Following the submission of the post-mortem report, the court has directed key witnesses, including police personnel who were on duty in the Oko-Oba area on October 24, 2020, to appear and testify.
Rights Groups Demand Accountability
Media Rights Agenda (MRA), which has supported the Onifade family in its legal efforts, has described the post-mortem findings as significant evidence in the case.
Rights activists, journalist unions, and the deceased’s family continue to demand the public prosecution of the police officers who fired the shot and those who supervised the deployment during the Lagos #EndSARS demonstrations.
Japa on reverse lane as US releases names, photos of 112 Nigerians on deportation list
Oyo kidnap: Five defendants plead not guilty to seven count charges
Autopsy Confirms #EndSARS Journalist Pelumi Onifade Died From Gunshot Wound
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