May 20, (THEWILL) – Riots broke out in some parts of the Federal Capital Territory on Friday, over extension of tenure of chairman and councillors of six area councils.
The Minister of the FCT, Mohammed Bello, had ordered the extension of the tenure of the council chairmen and councillors by one more year following a court judgement.
Roads leading into Abuja were barricaded with rioters burning tyres, but security operatives arrived the scene to restore normalcy.
The protesters, who carried placards with inscriptions, ‘No Tenure Elongation,’ ‘Stop Manipulating The Minister’, ‘Give Us True Justice’, amongst others in front of an FCT Magistrates’ Court in Zone 3, Abuja, expressed disappointment that any court of competent jurisdiction would grant tenure elongation to the outgoing FCT council chairmen, who were elected and inaugurated based on the provisions of the old Electoral Act, 2010.
In an earlier protest on Thursday, Simon Chukwuemeka, a legal practitioner, had explained that since the outgoing chairmen were elected and inaugurated on the basis of the relevant provisions of the 2010 Electoral Act, which specified three-year tenure for the chairmen and Councilors, it would be wrong to grant them judgement for tenure elongation.
“We are aware of a judgement by a High Court of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), under Justice Ibrahim Muhammed in Kubwa district, where the council chairmen have gotten judgement in their favour to extend their tenure by one year. That was a wrong judgement and should not be allowed to stand.
“Imagine they were taking the tenure elongation case to court and they only joined the FCT Minister as the defendant, why did they not include the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the elected council chairmen and their councillors? That shows that it is a conspiracy against the peoples’ interest and should not be allowed to stand”, he said.
Mrs Grace Danusa, who was also among the protesters, said they decided to come out to join the protest because they were tired of the injustice being meted on the common people in the country and they needed to support the call against tenure elongation for peace to reign in the FCT.
“Politicians should stop heating the polity, people are thinking of how to make peace reign, while some selfish politicians are thinking of how to heat the polity by extending their tenure when we already have constitutionally elected chairmen and councillors waiting. That is a grave injustice to the people.
“If they wanted tenure elongation, they should have taken the matter to court before the election was conducted and produced winners, not after the elections. That is wickedness and a deliberate act to cause a crisis in the territory. So, that so-called judgement should not be allowed to stand, for peace to reign”, she said.
At the time of this report, security operatives have succeeded in securing passage of traffic
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