Federal High Court Goes On Break Ahead Of Gubernatorial Elections

Federal High Court of Nigeria announced ahead of Saturday's governorship and house of assembly elections that all the court proceedings will be stopped for two days - Friday (March 17) and Monday (March 20).

Justice John Tsoho, Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, directed all the justices on Thursday that they can take cases till Thursday and they can later resume from Tuesday (March 21) onwards.

These two days of break will also allow all the judges to cast their votes in gubernatorial elections.

"Your Lordships are, by this circular, granted a short break in order to perform your civic duties during the Governorship and House of Assembly elections," Tsoho wrote in the statement issued, Punch reported.

"The administrative judges in the Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt Judicial Divisions shall ensure that a judge is designated to cater for the North, South-West, and South-South/South-East geo-political areas, respectively, regarding urgent matters during the period," Tsoho added.

Aside from Federal High Court, the National Population Commission (NPC) also disclosed this week that the 2023 Housing and Population Census will be postponed from March 29 to April 2 in all 774 local government areas of Nigeria due to gubernatorial elections.

The census is happening this year after 17 years.

The governorship and house of assembly elections will involve 1,021 constituencies (28 governorship and 993 State Assembly seats) unlike the presidential elections, which were held last month.

National Security Adviser (NSA) Babagana Monguno also noted that the forthcoming elections are going to be "complicated and contextually different" compared to last month's election.

Considering the security during and after elections, Monguno revealed on Wednesday that he has been in touch with the Chief of Defense Staff and Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, who is responsible to head the security agency during elections.

"So far, so good, we do not envisage anything that is going to be terrible or apocalyptic in the next few days," he said. "But that does not mean that we should all do away with our state of readiness. We must comply with the rules. We must also allow everyone to exercise their fundamental rights as citizens of this country."

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu has also advised all the political parties to tell their supporters that these elections are a "contest and not war."

Hence, one should refrain from any act of violence that may cause trouble for election polls, security, service providers, media or citizens.