The African Democratic Congress (ADC) on Thursday said the President Bola Tinubu-led ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) wants to set Nigeria on fire.

The party condemned judgement by Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court, Abuja Division, which sacked the David Mark-led leadership of the party and voided Atiku Abubakar’s presidential primary.

In a statement by ADC spokesperson, Bolaji Abdullahi, the party said, the “Lifu judgment shows the APC wants to set Nigeria on fire, adding that its “Sokoto rally has sent the ruling party into a panic.”

“We warn the APC: do not play with fires you cannot control. The peace and stability of Nigeria are bigger than the ambition of any president or political party. Nobody should be so desperate to retain power that they are prepared to put the entire country at risk. 

“This is not the time to play silly games with the stability of this country. Nigeria belongs to Nigerians, not to the APC. The presidency is not an inheritance. If the President thinks he has performed well in office, why is he afraid of competition? If the APC thinks that its policies and candidates are popular, why don’t they subject themselves to free and fair elections?,” the ADC said.

The ADC said the judgement by Justice Lifu purporting to sack the Senator David Mark-led leadership and invalidate the candidacy of Mr Abubakar was another desperate attempt to cripple the opposition and deny Nigerians the right to choose their leaders in the forthcoming general elections.

“We have reasons to believe that the judgment had long been written on this case. The Sokoto rally was simply a trigger that stampeded its delivery. Yesterday, Nigerians came out in their hundreds of thousands to demonstrate their support for the ADC and our promise of making life affordable for them. Today, they are being told that the party that they support and the candidates that they have supported at all levels could be erased by the stroke of a reckless judicial pen,” the ADC said.

It added, “Do these people understand what they are playing with? This is not about Atiku Abubakar or David Mark. It is about the democratic rights of Nigerians to freely choose their own leaders. It is about the rights of thousands of candidates to participate in a democratic process.”

The ADC maintained that the judgment was legally indefensible and would be challenged through every available judicial process.

The party noted, “Our objection is particularly anchored on the subsisting judgment of Justice Musa Liman of the same Federal High Court, delivered on 2 July 2026 in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1637/2025, which affirmed the legitimacy of the David Mark-led NWC and directed INEC to recognise the leadership. It is a settled principle of Nigerian jurisprudence that a court of coordinate jurisdiction cannot sit on appeal over, review, vary or nullify the subsisting judgment of another court of equal jurisdiction.

“The ADC, therefore, rejects any consequential orders founded on a determination that appears to disregard these fundamental legal principles. However, we await the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the said judgment to ascertain its precise terms, scope and operative orders.”

It stated that it had seen the script before.

The party added, “When they are scared that the opposition is gathering steam, they use their judges in the courts to influence legally indefensible judgments. But the millions of Nigerians that are hungry and waiting for them at the ballot box see right through them and will not sit down in silence while our democracy is taken away by the courts.”

The court’s judgement came less than three months before the presidential elections scheduled for January 16, 2027.