The Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday, again adjourned indefinitely a suit filed by a factional leader of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Nafiu Bala Gombe, following a request by the plaintiff seeking the transfer of the case to another judge.

Justice Emeka Nwite adjourned the matter sine die after parties clashed over a letter written by the plaintiff to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court seeking the reassignment of the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1819/2025.

The suit, which has generated intense legal fireworks within the ADC, was earlier stalled following an interlocutory appeal filed by the second defendant, David Mark, which eventually travelled to the Supreme Court.


At Friday’s proceedings, counsel for the plaintiff, Luka Musa Haruna, informed the court that the apex court had on April 30, 2026, delivered judgment in the interlocutory appeal.

Haruna said the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit and also set aside the Court of Appeal’s order staying proceedings in the substantive suit.

“The interlocutory appeal of the 2nd defendant has travelled to the Supreme Court. My Lord, we are glad to inform this honourable court that on the 30th day of April 2026, the Supreme Court delivered its judgment on the interlocutory appeal dismissing the said appeal for lacking in merit,” he said.

The lawyer, however, disclosed that the plaintiff had, through a letter dated May 4, 2026, applied to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court for the transfer of the case to another judge.

He said the letter had already been transmitted to the court registrar and urged Justice Nwite to await the administrative decision of the Chief Judge.

“At this juncture, we must humbly pray to your Lordship, to wait for the administrative decision of the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court,” Haruna said.

The request immediately drew strong opposition from the defence team, which accused the plaintiff of attempting to frustrate the accelerated hearing earlier ordered by the Court of Appeal and upheld by the Supreme Court.

Counsel for the first defendant, Realwan Okpanachi, who held brief for S.E. Aruwa, argued that the plaintiff had misrepresented the outcome of the Supreme Court judgment.

According to him, the apex court partially allowed the appeal and specifically upheld the appellate court’s order directing accelerated hearing of the case.

Okpanachi further faulted the plaintiff for allegedly ambushing the defendants with the transfer request.

“We have not received any communication regarding that application. My Lord, so as it is, we don’t know the form or the content of that application. Therefore, we take the approach of the plaintiff as an ambush,” he said.

He added, “We also consider it as an attempt to frustrate the order of accelerated hearing granted by the Court of Appeal and upheld by the Supreme Court.”

The senior lawyer maintained that litigants were not permitted to choose courts or judges to determine their cases.

He, however, urged the court to maintain the earlier order adjourning the matter sine die pending the filing of the Certified True Copy of the Supreme Court judgment.

Counsel for the second defendant, Sulaiman Usman, also condemned the plaintiff’s move, describing it as “forum shopping and judge shopping.”

Usman told the court that the Supreme Court had commended Justice Nwite “in glowing terms” over his handling of the proceedings.

“So my Lord, for the plaintiffs to come back to this court, and to inform us today that they have written a private correspondence to the Honourable Chief Judge, and to hinge that to make a request for this court to await the outcome of that private correspondence, is not only unfortunate My Lord, but a dangerous trend which must not be allowed to stand,” he said.

Counsel for the third defendant, M.E. Sherriff, aligned himself with the submissions of the first and second defendants, arguing that substantive prayers could not be sought through ordinary letters.

Similarly, counsel for the fifth defendant, P.I. Oyewole, described the application as “strange” and accused the plaintiff of inviting the Chief Judge “to indulge in judicial rascality”.

“My Lord, asking the Chief Judge to transfer that kind of case is worse than forum shopping,” Oyewole argued.

Responding, Haruna faulted the defence for attacking a letter they had not seen, insisting that the plaintiff stood by its application.

Justice Nwite subsequently held that the court could not take any decision on the letter without hearing all parties.

“Taking a decision or any action in such a letter without hearing from the defendants will amount to breach of their fundamental right in this suit,” the judge ruled.

He added that since the letter was addressed to the Chief Judge, the trial court could not make any pronouncement on it.

“This matter is best adjourned sine die to afford the parties properly file a Certified True Copy of the judgment of the Supreme Court in the interlocutory appeal in the suit, to serve the defendants with the letter addressed to the Honourable Chief Judge, and finally to await further or any directive from the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court,” Justice Nwite said.

The matter was thereafter adjourned indefinitely.

By Augustine Akhilomen

…Accuses NNPCL Of Lacking Transparency And Attempting To Hide The Details Of The Deal

Former Vice President and 2023 presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has demanded the immediate suspension of the deal between the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and Chinese firms aimed at reviving the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries.

Atiku, through his media aide Phrank Shaibu on Friday, criticized the partnership as an “opaque” and “dangerous gamble” with Nigeria’s economic future.

He accused the NNPCL of lacking transparency and attempting to hide the details of the deal, similar to previous controversial agreements.

Atiku referred to the Chinese firms, identified as Sanjiang Chemical Company Limited and Xingcheng (Fuzhou) Industrial Park Operation and Management Co. Ltd, as unknown entities lacking the credibility for such a massive project.

“It is both shocking and insulting that after wasting over $2.5 billion on endless refinery rehabilitation scandals, the NNPC is once again asking Nigerians to trust another experiment built on secrecy and questionable competence,” Atiku stated.

“There is no publicly available evidence anywhere in the world showing that Sanjiang has ever built, operated, or managed a full-scale crude oil refinery of the magnitude and complexity of Port Harcourt or Warri refineries.

“Processing petrochemical derivatives is not the same as running an aging national refinery burdened with decades of operational decay,” Atiku noted.
Also, Atiku said the second Chinese firm, Xingcheng (Fuzhou) Industrial Park Operation and Management Co. Ltd., appears to have absolutely no verifiable experience in petroleum engineering, refinery operations, or hydrocarbon processing.

“By every available corporate and industry record, Xingcheng is essentially an industrial park and infrastructure management company — the equivalent of handing over a hospital’s intensive care unit to a real estate developer simply because they can construct buildings,” the statement added.

“It is unacceptable that after years of failed turnaround maintenance scams, billions of dollars squandered, and repeated lies about refinery functionality, Nigerians are now being told to celebrate a memorandum of understanding signed with companies whose core expertise does not align with the technical realities of refinery rehabilitation.

“Nigerians must not allow the same people who destroyed the refineries through incompetence and corruption to now hide behind vague Chinese partnerships to continue the cycle of deception,” he said.

“The era where NNPC signs opaque agreements abroad and expects Nigerians to clap blindly is over.

“National assets are not toys for bureaucratic experimentation. The Port Harcourt and Warri refineries are too strategic to be surrendered to uncertainty, obscurity, and corporate guesswork”, he stated.

Nigerian singer Adekunle Gold has revealed that he is a descendant of King Kosoko of Lagos, a 19th-century monarch who resisted British colonial forces when they first arrived in Nigeria.

Gold made the disclosure in an interview on Great Day Houston, a morning show on KHOU 11 television in Houston, Texas, which was published on YouTube on Thursday.

On his royal lineage, he said his ancestor fought the British when they first entered Nigeria through Lagos, was driven into exile, and eventually returned victorious.

“My progenitor used to be king of Lagos. His name is King Kosoko. He fought the British when they first came to Nigeria through Lagos to try to take our things, then he fought, went to exile, and came back, and then still won,” he said.

Gold, who is from the Yoruba tribe, was born in Lagos.

The singer also revealed that his stage name was given to him by God through a church sermon.

He said he had been searching for one and had taken the matter to God in prayer when the answer came during a church sermon.

“I told God, I need a name,” he said.

He said a preacher repeated the same phrase three times during the sermon, and he took it as a divine signal.

“Something just told me it must have been God. God told me at that point that that’s your name,” he said.

Gold said he settled on the name immediately after.

“I said, okay, you know what, just make it Adekunle Gold, and it’s very befitting of me,” he said.