The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has disclosed that it has put together a team of 97 lawyers to defend its leadership in a suit challenging the announcement of former Senate president, David Mark and former Osun State governor, Rauf Aregbesola as interim national chairman and national secretary respectively

This is as the party accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of being behind the ‘fake lawsuit’ against its interim leadership.

The leader of the legal team, Barrister Mohammed Sheriff, who made the disclosure in Abuja on Tuesday, accused the APC of filing a suit using the names of individuals who are not members of the ADC.

This is as the interim national chairman led a stakeholder meeting of the new coalition, where he assured that under his leadership, the ADC would operate with total transparency and would not favour any presidential aspirant.

He said, “I don’t own this party more than any other member… All Nigerians must come together and take ownership of the ADC,” he said.

The former Senate president who gave the assurance amid speculations that his choice as interim national chairman was a grand plot to promote the presidential ambition of former vice president Atiku Abubakar in 2027, urged party members to set aside their differences and focus on building a united political force, warning that Nigeria’s democracy could fail if citizens remained passive.

The ADC chairman also criticised the APC, saying the ruling party should focus on fixing its own policy failures rather than targeting individuals.

“If they admitted that insecurity was bad and promised to improve it but instead made it worse, should Nigerians continue to support them? The answer is no,” he said.

According to the ADC, investigations showed that the supposed plaintiffs in the suit were not registered members of the party in either Kogi or Nasarawa State.