The Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday threw out a suit filed by ward executives of the party seeking to judicially enforce the indefinite suspension of Senator Ireti Kingibe and made them pay dearly for it.
Justice Peter Lifu, in a ruling that was as pointed as it was decisive, dismissed the action because disciplinary measures, suspensions, and leadership disputes within political parties remain internal matters best resolved through the parties’ own constitutional structures, not judicial intervention.
He didn’t stop there. Invoking Sections 82 and 83 of the Electoral Act, the court imposed a fine of N10 million on the plaintiffs, payable to Senator Kingibe, and went a step further by slapping an additional N10 million penalty on the plaintiffs’ counsel for filing what the judge characterized as a frivolous suit, bringing the total punitive award against the aggrieved ward executives and their legal team to a staggering N20 million.
The ruling delivers a significant, if not humiliating, setback to the Wuse Ward chapter of the ADC, which had boldly marched into court to have a judge rubber-stamp a decision they themselves had taken, only to be told, in no uncertain terms, that they had no business being there.
Senator Kingibe, who represents the Federal Capital Territory in the Senate, was allegedly suspended on March 10, 2026, by her Wuse Ward executives over accusations of anti-party activities and disregard for the constitution of the ADC. It was a dramatic move against one of the country’s most high-profile female legislators.
The suit was predicated on five grounds, among which were that Kingibe was placed on suspension due to anti-party activities, gross misconduct, and confiscation of the ward’s statutory records.
The plaintiffs further claimed that despite being notified of her suspension, she continued to hold parallel meetings, issued press statements as an ADC member, and used her security details to intimidate the Ward Executive Committee.
The two plaintiffs, Okezuo Godfrey Anayo and Isaiah Ojonugwa Samuel, filed the suit on behalf of themselves and other party members, naming the senator as the sole defendant, and sought an interim injunction barring her from presenting herself as an ADC member, attending party meetings, or performing any functions on behalf of the party.
The case was prosecuted by Senior Advocate of Nigeria Kolawole Olowookere, lending it the weight of senior legal firepower. Yet even that was not enough to save the action from collapse.
From the outset, the court cast a skeptical eye on the suit’s very logic. Justice Lifu questioned the legal coherence of the action and pressed why those who had themselves initiated the suspension were now seeking judicial validation of their own decision.
The court held that it was the senator, as the aggrieved party, who ought to have approached the court if she wished to challenge the disciplinary action, noting that the plaintiffs had effectively invited the court to endorse a dispute that was not ripe for adjudication.
In other words, the judge found the ward executives to be in the peculiar and legally untenable position of asking a court to validate a decision they had already taken unilaterally, a move he interpreted as a sign of self-doubt. He consequently described the suit as frivolous, baseless, and unfounded.
The defense, led by Marshal Abubakar on behalf of Senator Kingibe, had urged the court to dismiss the matter with punitive costs, arguing that the party already had laid-down procedures for resolving internal disputes, which the plaintiffs had failed to follow.
He also raised a pointed procedural objection that the plaintiffs themselves had been suspended by the party and therefore lacked the legal standing to institute the action in the first place. The court, in its ruling, effectively vindicated that position.
The courtroom drama cannot be divorced from the wider political chessboard on which it is being played. Kingibe was elected senator in 2023 on the Labour Party platform before later defecting to the ADC amid wider political realignments ahead of the 2027 elections.
Her move was part of a broader and notable wave of defections that has seen politicians from the ruling All Progressives Congress, the Peoples Democratic Party, and the Labour Party flood into the ADC’s ranks.
The party’s sudden swelling of membership, however, appears to have sown as many seeds of conflict as it has of opportunity. Powerful figures arriving from different political traditions, each with their own loyalists and ambitions, have created fertile ground for the kind of ward-level power struggles now spilling into the courts.
For Senator Kingibe, a seasoned political figure who has navigated multiple electoral cycles and party affiliations, Friday’s ruling is a vindication, both legally and politically.
Her opponents walked into court with a SAN, filed a five-point suit, and walked out N20 million poorer, with their suspension effort publicly dismissed as lacking any legal foundation.
As Nigeria inches closer to the 2027 election season, the ruling serves as a firm judicial warning to party executives across the country: the courts are not instruments of internal party scores.
And for the ADC, a party still finding its footing under the weight of its new and ambitious membership, the message could not have come at a more consequential time.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
The Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a suit by ADC’s Wuse Ward executives seeking judicial backing for the suspension of FCT Senator Ireti Kingibe, ruling it a frivolous interference in internal party affairs.
Justice Peter Lifu’s most telling observation was this: you cannot suspend someone and then run to court to validate your own decision; the suspended party is the one with legal standing to seek redress, not the other way around. The ward executives left court not only empty-handed but also N20 million lighter.
At its core, this case is a cautionary tale about the internal fractures quietly destabilizing the ADC as it absorbs a flood of political defectors jostling for power ahead of 2027 — and a firm reminder that Nigerian courts will not be weaponized to settle intra-party scores.
