Court Slams ADC Chieftain With ₦100 Million Penalty After Dismissing Bias Suit

A Federal High Court in Abuja has struck out a lawsuit filed by the National Welfare Secretary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Nkemakolam Ukandu, and ordered him to pay ₦100 million in damages to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho, and Justice Peter Lifu.....KINDLY READ THE FULL STORY HERE▶

Justice Salim Ibrahim delivered the ruling on Monday, dismissing the case for lack of diligent prosecution after the plaintiff repeatedly failed to appear before the court.

The judge directed Ukandu to pay ₦50 million each to Justice Tsoho and Justice Lifu within 14 days. The order followed an oral application made by counsel to the two judges, J.U.K. Igwe (SAN).

Ukandu had instituted the suit against the National Judicial Council (NJC), Justice Tsoho and Justice Lifu, alleging judicial bias, corruption, abuse of judicial powers and disobedience to a court order.

In the suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1165/2026, he sought an order compelling the NJC to investigate the allegations against the two judicial officers.

However, neither Ukandu nor his legal representative appeared before Justice Ibrahim at any stage after the matter was assigned to his court. At the previous sitting on June 30, the judge had warned that the case would be struck out if the plaintiff or his counsel failed to attend the next hearing.

The lawsuit stemmed from the ongoing leadership dispute within the ADC involving aggrieved party member Nafiu-Bala Gombe, whose substantive case is currently before Justice Lifu.

Gombe is asking the court to restrain the leadership led by Senator David Mark from presenting themselves as the party’s legitimate executives.

Ukandu, who had applied to be joined as a party in the matter, accused Justice Tsoho and Justice Lifu of bias. He also challenged the decision to reassign the case to Justice Lifu after it was withdrawn from Justice Emeka Nwite, arguing that the move contravened orders of both the Supreme Court and Justice Nwite.