The legal battle over the emergence of Senator Ireti Kingibe as the African Democratic Party (ADC) candidate for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Senatorial District took a dramatic turn on Tuesday after her lawyer told the Federal High Court in Abuja that the lawmaker only became aware of the suit through social media.
At the resumed proceedings before Justice Salim Ibrahim, Kingibe’s counsel, Marshal Abubakar, said he was appearing under protest because his client had not been served with the originating court processes.
According to him, the senator had to apply for copies of the court documents after learning about the case from reports circulating on social media.
Counsel to the plaintiff, Moses Awuru, admitted that he only discovered on Monday that the court bailiff had not served Kingibe with the processes.
Awuru told the court that the bailiff had since been mobilised to effect service and added that he had discussed the issue with Abubakar, who indicated he would accept the documents on behalf of his client.
Counsel to the ADC, Oladipupo Oladele, informed the court that the party had already been served and had filed a preliminary objection alongside a counter-affidavit challenging the suit.
Justice Ibrahim subsequently directed the plaintiff’s counsel to ensure that Kingibe was properly served with the court processes.
The judge also ordered that a hearing notice be issued and served on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which was not represented in court.
The suit was filed by Mubarak Tijani, an aggrieved ADC aspirant, who is seeking to nullify the outcome of the party’s May 21, 2026 primary election that produced Kingibe as the party’s FCT senatorial candidate.
In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1170/2026, Tijani is asking the court to stop the ADC from forwarding Kingibe’s name to INEC and to prevent the electoral body from recognising or publishing her as the party’s candidate.
He alleged that no valid primary election was conducted on the scheduled date, claiming election materials were never deployed to the designated venue and that party members, delegates and aspirants waited for hours without accreditation or voting.
Tijani further alleged that election officials and materials were diverted to a private property in Gudu, Abuja, allegedly belonging to Kingibe, where he claimed results were secretly collated before she was declared the winner without any voting process.
He also told the court that his appeal to the party’s appeal committee was ignored and urged the court to compel the ADC to conduct a fresh primary election under INEC’s supervision.
