Court Backtracks, Orders FCT Minister To Swear In New Chairmen, Councillors

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court sitting in Kubwa district under Justice Mohammed Ibrahim has set aside the judgment given in favour of tenure elongation for the immediate past chairmen and their councilors, ordering immediate swearing-in of the newly elected chairmen and their councilors.

On May 18, 2022, residents of FCT received a judgment from the FCT High Court in Kubwa suspending the swearing-in of the elected chairmen and the councilors, which generated confusion in the territory, and the legal team of the FCTA had to seek redress of the judgment in court.

Justice Ibrahim Mohammed while delivering a fresh judgment yesterday 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 that 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, Hon. 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. Then he 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 judge 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 said.

He further commended the spirit exhibited by the entire members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who came out to stand for fairness, fairness, and what is right.