THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it would not conduct chairmanship elections for the six Local Councils Areas (LCAs) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in 2025 due to the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 (as amended).
According to the commission, instead of the three years specified by the Electoral Act of 2010, the Electoral Act 2022 (as amended) provides a four-year term for chairmen and other elected council members.
The INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, revealed this on Friday, June 28, at a meeting with the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) in Abuja.
Yakubu declared that the present council members’ and chairmen’s tenure would end in June 2026.
The INEC chairman said the commission had previously been contacted over the area council leaders’ terms by a few legal firms, contenders for the offices and others.
He added that the commission was also being pressured to make public the agenda and schedule of events for the LCAs.
Yakubu explained that the grounds for their inquiries were found in the terms of the Electoral Act 2010 (as modified), which was in effect as of Saturday, February 12, 2022, the day the area council elections were held.
“Nigerians are aware that the National Assembly has since repealed and re-enacted the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) as the Electoral Act 2022.
“In particular, in the exercise of its powers as the law-making body for the FCT, the National Assembly extended the tenure of the area councils from three to four years, thereby aligning it with executive and legislative elections nationwide,” Yakubu stated.
According to him, this is one of the important provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.
“By the time the elected chairmen and councillors were sworn-in four months later on 14th June 2022, they took their oath of allegiance and oath of office on the basis of the new electoral Act (i.e. the Electoral Act 2022) which provides for a four-year tenure. Consequently, their tenure therefore expires in June 2026,” the INEC chair declared.
He emphasised that the date of the inauguration for legislatures or executives determines tenure rather than the election date.
In April 2024, INEC received a request to urgently release a notice of election for the 2025 elections in the FCT area councils.
The request was contained in a letter addressed to the INEC chairman by a lawyer, Elom Aleke.
In the letter, received at the INEC headquarters on April 17, it was noted that the tenure of the current chairmen of area councils and councillors in the FCT, who assumed office in 2022 will soon lapse.
A reporter with the ICIR
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