Daily Independent
24 Feb 2011
Lagos — Senate Deputy Minority Leader, Olorunnimbe Mamora, has said that the court judgment stopping the April governorship polls in five states did not extend the tenure of the governors, but only gave effect to the rule of law.
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja had on Wednesday restrained the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from conducting governorship election in Kogi, Adamawa, Bayelsa, Sokoto and Cross River
Mamora, however, said it is inappropriate for people to say that the court extended the tenure of the governors of the states by the verdict.
"The verdict in favour of the five governors of states that governorship elections would not hold is in line with the rule of law. It is not right to say that their tenure was extended by the court.
"What the court did was to follow the provision of the constitution as at the time the 2007 elections held in the concerned states were annulled.
"The election was held in 2007 and arising from the petitions against it by opponents of the current governors, the election was nullified and reruns were ordered. They were re-elected in a fresh election.
"What that means is that by the nullification, no election took place in the first instance. It was like a fresh tenure," Mamora argued.
He added that "it was because of this kind of situation, that we, members of the National Assembly, in amending the constitution, said that where a governor must have spent some time in office and he gets re-elected through a rerun, the period so spent must be taken into cognisance in determining when his tenure will expire.
"That was why we amended that section of the constitution as it relates to the office of the governor and that of the President.
"But this cannot be applied in this case because the reruns have been held before this amendment was made in 2010."
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