A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has granted an extension of tenure to Kogi, Sokoto, Adamawa, Bayelsa and Cross River State governors, considering their newly sworn in oath after the re-run elections conducted in the state.
The five incumbent governors of the states, namely: Ibrahim Idris of Kogi, Aliyu Wamako of Sokoto, Timiprieye Sylva of Bayelsa, Murtala Nyako of Adamawa and Liyel Imoke of Cross-River, challenged the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct governorship polls in their states next year while, according to them, their tenure is still running.
They also asked the court to stop the People's Democratic Party (PDP) from conducting any primaries for the governorship elections in their states.
Though the primaries have been conducted and names of the candidates submitted to the electoral commission, the presiding Judge, Adamu Bello, in his judgment ruled that so far that the elections in the states have been nullified and fresh elections conducted and new oaths taken, the governors' terms effectively begin when they took their oath of office.
However, in the recently amended 1999 constitution, Section 135 of the principal Act which affirms on the issue of governors' tenure is altered in subsection (2) by inserting a new paragraph c, and states that, "in the determination of the four year term, where a re-run election has taken place and the person earlier sworn in wins the re-run election, the time
spent in the office before the date the election was annulled, shall be taken into account."p
