THE Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) Mohammed Musa Bello has suspended the inauguration of the newly elected FCT council chairmen and councillors.
Bello in a statement on Thursday said the suspension of the inauguration was as a result of a court injuction.
There were earlier reports that the FCT minister decided to extend the tenure of the incumbent FCT council chairmen and councillors for another one year.
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Clarifying the issue, Bello said his office recently received communication of a judgment by an FCT high court directing his office to suspend the inauguration of the new chairmen.
The tenure of the incumbent chairmen and councillors was supposed to end on May 19, 2022. It was expected that the newly elected chairmen and councillors would be inaugurated immediately.
Bello said, “According to the judgment, based on the recently signed Electoral Act of 2022, which stipulates that the tenure of office of the chairmen of the Area Councils in FCT would now be four years instead of three years, the existing chairmen whose tenure were meant to expire or end today, have another one year to continue, based on the new law.”
He explained that, as a result of the court injunction, the the FCT Administration has no option than to suspend the planned inauguration of the six area council chairmen who were duly elected some weeks ago.
“Also, as an administration that is very conscious of the need to abide by the rule of law, even though we are not satisfied with the judgment of the court, we have no option but to comply.
“While complying, we are also making efforts to vacate the judgment and if need arises, to appeal the judgment, so that the correct position of the law will be determined by the legal processes.”
Bello, however, appealed to all stakeholders in the FCT to everyone to be calm and await the outcome of the legal processes.
“FCT is a creation of law. The FCT has always been known to be a place of unity, peace and good governance and populated by law abiding residents. Please let us continue the way we are and await the court processes. At the end of the court processes, the clear direction of what needs to be done would be clearly stated and then as an administration, we will do the needful,” he said.
'Niyi worked with The ICIR as an Investigative Reporter and Fact-checker from 2020 till September 2022. You can shoot him an email via [email protected]. You can as well follow him on Twitter via @niyi_oyedeji.
What right does he have to suspend elected officials. That is arrant nonsense and abuse of office. The elected officials are not appointees like himself.