…………….as Court Grants Extra Year to Incumbents
The FCT Minister Muhammed Musa Bello, has announced the suspension of the inauguration of the 6 new Area Council Chairmen who were elected in February this year whose inauguration was originally scheduled to hold tomorrow May 20, 2022.
He made the announcement Thursday at a press conference explaining that the suspension became necessary as a result of a Court judgement which stated that on the basis of the recently passed Electoral Act the incumbent Chairmen still had a year to go before the expiration of their tenure.
“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”, the Minister stated.
“So, as a law-abiding government, the FCT Administration has no option than to suspend the planned inauguration of the Six Area Council Chairmen of the Federal Capital Territory who were duly elected some weeks ago as a result of this injunction of the court.
Expressing misgivings about the judgement, the Minister said “even though we are not satisfied with the judgment of the court, we have no option but to comply”, adding “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.”
Acknowledging that the judgement “has raised a lot of concerns within certain sections of the Federal Capital Territory residents”, he appealed for calm saying ” I wish to appeal to everyone to be calm, to be law abiding and to await the outcome of the legal processes.”