Former lawmaker representing Kogi West at the National Assembly, Senator Dino Melaye, has criticised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the removal of David Mark as the chairman of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), describing the decision as a ‘Jankara’ interpretation.
Melaye, who is also a lawyer and a chieftain of the ADC, said this on Thursday during an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief.
“It’s explicit, it’s clear but for them to give it a ‘Jankara’ interpretation and to suit their own purpose, knowing fully well that registration is ongoing, congresses are ongoing and you want to leave us without a leader so that we would not we able to conduct all our congresses and even run primaries for us to produce people who will contest the election.
“They are joking; this country belongs to us. We will pursue it legally and also use all rights within the framework of law,” the Kogi politician said.
He further said the party had taken legal action against INEC and was set to file another suit.
“And as I speak to you, we are even going to criminalise the activities of the officials of INEC because what they have done is criminal and we are going to face it from a criminal perspective in court because it’s complete disobedience of the court order,” he added.
He also said there will be no coronated president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Melaye also accused INEC of taking sides.
“INEC as an institution has failed Nigerians and taken sides with a letter written by a man who is no longer a part of the party, who voluntarily resigned on May 17.
“The country belongs to all of us, the government is not owned by those in government, it’s owned by the people, and we will prove that the people own the government and Nigeria belongs to all of us, and that ADC will participate in this election and defeat Tinubu come May 29,” he added.
INEC had on Wednesday said it would cease to accept correspondence from either the Mark-led ADC or that of Rafiu Bala, following a review of the Court of Appeal judgment on March 12 this year.
A statement signed by the Chairman, Information and Voter Education, Mohammed Kudu, also noted that the commission will no longer engage with either faction, nor monitor any meetings, congresses, or conventions of the two groups until the matter at the Federal High Court is decided.
The commission further announced that it would remove the names of David Mark from the INEC portal.
Bala (also known as Gombe), who was the vice chairman of the ADC before the Mark-led caretaker committee assumed control of the party, had approached the court to challenge the emergence of the former senate president and his colleagues at the National Working Committee.
The opposition coalition had, in 2025, adopted the ADC as a political platform to challenge the ruling APC in the 2027 general elections.
This was followed by the former national chairman of the ADC, Ralph Nwosu, formally handing over the party’s membership card to Mark and a former Osun State governor Rauf Aregbesola, who assumed the roles of interim national chairman and national secretary, respectively.
The resignation of the Ralph Nwosu-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the ADC in July 2025 gave rise to the Mark-led NWC.
But Gombe claimed that following Nwosu’s resignation, he automatically ought to take over as chairman.