Tenure Elongation: Court Orders Swearing – In Of FCT Chairmen Elect And Councillors

By Sarauniya Usman, Abuja

The FCT High Court, earlier Today, made a u-turn on tenure elongation and other the swearing-in of the chairmen Elect and Councilors immediately.

Earlier today, an FCT court sitting in Kubwa, ordered the immediate reversal of the judgment and asked that the newly elected chairmen and their councillors be sworn in immediately.

While delivering the judgment on Thursday, Justice Ibrahim Mohammed clarified that everybody is in a learning process, that persons are bound to make mistakes and also bound to make corrections.

He said that it was very clear that some mistakes were made and a judgment was entered, which brought a lot of issues concerning the elongation of the tenure of the outgoing chairmen in the six area councils.

Mohammed further said,”that in his wisdom, he has vacated the first judgment that was given by him and thereby directed that the area council chairmen who were elected and issued a certificate of return that the FCT Minister should go ahead and swear them into office”.

Spokesperson for Campaign Council and AMAC Chairman-Elect,Emmanuel Iyang,while speaking on the judgment explained that for a while, the battle has been on, which made the Chief Judge of the FCT direct the matter back to the same court that initially issued the first judgment.

“We want to thank the FCT Minister who saw that something went wrong, first he respected the judgment of the court by suspending the swearing-in, which was very right.

He also said that the FCTA is an institution created by law, and as such he will not in any way disobey the law, most especially coming from a court of competent jurisdiction.

“He went further to say that his legal team would seek redress in the court and that they did. Today, based on that redress in court, the judgment has been vacated the judgment and by His grace, the area council chairmen will also be sworn into office as directed by the court to the Minister.

“As I speak with you now, we are believing that the Minister would be served by the court, directing him to swear in the newly elected chairmen. I want to strongly believe that as soon as the Honorable minister is served the order of the court, he will act immediately,” he added.

However, he commended the spirit exhibited by the entire members of the Peoples Democratic Party who came out to stand for fairness, fairness, and what is right

It will be recalled that an earlier judgment on May 18th 2022, had suspended the swearing-in of the elected officials, generating confusion thereby making the legal team of the FCT Administration to seek redress of the judgment in court.