The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), has said it won’t conduct council election in Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, next year.
The electoral umpire asserted that holding council election next year in the FCT will amount to violation of the law.
It referred some members of the public, especially politicians, who are insisting on conduct of council election in the FCT next year, to the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 (as amended) with respect to the tenure of Area Council Chairmen in the Territory.
According to the Commission, the Act guarantees a four-year tenure for the Chairmen and Councilors, not the three years provided in the Electoral Act 2010.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu who disclosed this at a meeting with the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC) yesterday in Abuja, said the tenure of the current chairmen and councilors would lapse in June 2026.
He said the Commission had earlier received inquiries from some law firms, an individual, a political party and one FCT Chairmanship Aspirants’ Forum, regarding the tenure of the Area Councils and a demand for the Commission to release the ‘Timetable and Schedule of Activities’ for the Area Council elections.
Prof. Yakubu said their inquiries were based on the provisions of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), which was the subsisting law at the time elections to the Area Councils were held on Saturday 12th February 2022.
Recall that the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) provides for a three-year tenure for Chairmen and Councillors, a development that had sparked speculations that the tenure of the chairmen expires next year.
The INEC Chairman added that the Area Council election in the FCT conducted by INEC remains a model for Local Government elections in the country, noting that there is stability of tenure for Chairmen and Councillors.
