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.
He stated that a document claiming he resigned as national vice-chairman on May 17, 2025 did not emanate from him.
“My name is Hon. Nafiu Bala, the ADC acting national chairman,” he said.
“I would like to use this opportunity to address a document currently circulating, which claims that I resigned from my position as national vice chairman on May 17th.
“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.”
Bala said his emergence as acting national chairman followed the resignation of the party’s former leadership.
“If you didn’t forget, on the 2nd of July, we attended the event where some people showed interest in joining our party, the ADC,” he said.
“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 he has therefore resumed office as acting national chairman in line with the party’s constitution.
“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 added that any resignation letter he would issue would be done with his official letterhead.
“When I was deputy national chairman, if I were to write a resignation letter, I would do it using my official letterhead,” he said.
“Any letter not containing my letterhead is not from me.”
On August 1, 2025, Bala had similarly denied authorship of the resignation letter, dismissing 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.
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