Edo ADC Boils as Faction Plots to Oust State Chairman Ibadin Noble; Leadership Labels Move an ‘Illegal Coup’ Sponsored by Political Enemies

The leadership crisis within the African Democratic Congress (ADC) has shifted from the national stage in Abuja to the frontlines of Edo State. The party’s Benin City headquarters became a scene of high-stakes drama as news broke of a coordinated plot to remove the State Chairman, Ibadin Noble. The “Solution” proposed by a dissenting faction of the State Executive Committee was a swift replacement of the chairman, a move that has instead triggered a massive internal “Tsunami.”

The dissident group alleges that Noble has been “negotiating behind closed doors” with other political parties, undermining the ADC’s identity as a “Third Force.” However, the chairman has “flipped the script,” accusing the rebels of being “political mercenaries” hired to weaken the party just as it was gaining momentum. “I remain the constitutionally recognized chairman,” Noble declared, insisting that only a properly convened congress, not a “midnight gathering of three or four people,” can remove an elected officer.

This local “power grab” comes at a sensitive time. With the national ADC leadership still in a legal battle with INEC over the derecognition of David Mark, the party’s rank and file in Edo are worried that these “self-inflicted” wounds will make them irrelevant by 2027. “We should be talking about ‘Renewed Hope’ for the people of Edo, not fighting over chairs,” one party elder lamented.

As security has been beefed up at the state secretariat to prevent any violent takeover, the National Working Committee has reportedly summoned both factions to Abuja for an “emergency peace talk.” For now, the Edo ADC remains a house divided, with the fate of its chairman and its future in the state hanging in the balance of a fierce legal and political tug-of-war.