By CHARLES IWUOHA

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, on Friday disclosed that the tenure of the current local government and council chairmen and Councillors will end in June 2026 and not 2025.

To this end, Yakubu explained that INEC will not conduct local council elections in 2025.

Yakubu said the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 (As Amended) with respect to the tenure of Area Council Chairmen in the Federal Capital Territory FCT, guarantee a four-year tenure for the Chairmen and Councillors, not the three years provided in the Electoral Act 2010.

Speaking during a meeting with the Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC, in Abuja, Yakubu explained that the tenure of the current chairmen and councillors would lapse in June 2026.

He 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 12^th February 2022.

According to Yakubu, “Nigerians are aware that the National Assembly has since repealed and re-enacted the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) as the Electoral Act 2022.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.

“This is one of the important provisions of the Electoral Act 2022. The Act came into force on Friday 25^th February 2022, two weeks after the last Area Council elections in the FCT. By the time the elected Chairmen and Councillors were sworn in four months later on 14^th 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.

“For the avoidance of doubt, tenure is not defined by the date of election but the date of the Oath of Office for executive elections or the date of inauguration for legislative houses. For the executive, the tenure belongs to the elected individual while for legislators, the tenure belongs to the Legislature.

“A President/Vice President-elect, Governor/Deputy Governor-elect, Senator-elect, Member-elect, Chairman-elect or Councillor-elect cannot exercise the powers of office and draw from the remuneration attached to it until such a person is sworn-in or the legislative house is inaugurated.

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