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Nafiu Bala, the factional national chairman of the African Democratic Congress, has rejected claims that he resigned as deputy national chairman, insisting that the circulating resignation letter did not emanate from him and that the signature on it was forged.
Bala made the denial in a video published by Rariya Hausa, reacting to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s resolution on Wednesday regarding the ADC’s protracted leadership crisis.
Addressing the circulating document, which claimed he resigned as national vice chairman on May 17, 2025, Bala was categorical in distancing himself from it.
“I wish to state that this paper did not come from me, and that is not my signature on it. The signature you see there was forged,” he said.
The factional chairman traced his emergence as acting national chairman to the resignation of the party’s former leadership, recalling events that unfolded on July 2 when former ADC chairman Ralph Nwosu publicly announced that he, his secretary, and other party leaders were stepping down from their positions.
“On that day, the former ADC chairman, Ralph Nwosu, announced that he, his secretary, and other party leaders were stepping down from their positions. On that same day, he told the world that I, along with other people, would continue running the party affairs until the national convention,” Bala said.
Citing the party’s constitution as the basis for his assumption of the chairmanship role, he declared his resumption of office.
“Because of that, I am resuming office today as the ADC national chairman. According to our party constitution, when there is no leader, the deputy takes over,” he said.
Bala also established a clear standard for authenticating any future communication from him, warning that any document not bearing his official letterhead should not be attributed to him.
“When I was deputy national chairman, if I were to write a resignation letter, I would do it using my official letterhead. Any letter not containing my letterhead is not from me,” he stated.
This is not the first time Bala has rejected the resignation letter. On August 1, 2025, he similarly dismissed the document as “entirely false, deceptive, malicious and fake.”
His denial deepens an already complex leadership dispute with former Senate President David Mark, who has maintained that Bala’s resignation was genuine and was duly transmitted to INEC on August 12, 2025 — four months before Bala approached a Federal High Court in Abuja on September 2, 2025, seeking recognition as acting national chairman.
The litigation between both factions had earlier prompted INEC to withdraw its recognition of the party and delist the names of the Mark executive from its portal. However, on March 12, 2026, the Court of Appeal dismissed Mark’s jurisdictional challenge in its entirety, describing it as incompetent and unmeritorious — a ruling that handed Bala’s faction a significant legal victory in the ongoing tussle.
VANGUARD.
