According to reports from DAILY POST, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, clarified the tenure of the current local government and council chairmen in Nigeria. Yakubu explained that the tenure of the current chairmen and councillors will end in June 2026, not 2025 as previously believed. This means that INEC will not be conducting local council elections in 2025 as previously anticipated. The INEC chairman attributed this change to the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 (As Amended), which extended the tenure of Area Council Chairmen and Councillors in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) from three years to four years....CONTINUE READING

This aligns the tenure of local government officials with the executive and legislative elections nationwide. Yakubu noted that the previous understanding was based on the provisions of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), which was the subsisting law at the time of the last Area Council elections on February 12, 2022. However, the National Assembly has since repealed and re-enacted the Electoral Act, and the new law came into force on February 25, 2022, just two weeks after the last Area Council elections.

“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,” Yakubu explained. The INEC chairman emphasized that the tenure is not defined by the date of election, but rather by the date of the Oath of Office for executive elections or the date of inauguration for legislative houses. He further clarified that the tenure belongs to the elected individual for the executive and to the Legislature for legislators.