No fewer than 56 serving ward councillors in Anambra State have approached the High Court in Awka, seeking to overturn the two-year tenure prescribed for elected local government officials.
The suit, numbered A/261/2026, names the Anambra State Attorney General, the State House of Assembly and the Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission (ANSIEC) as the first, second and third defendants.
The councillors argued that Section 7(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which guarantees a system of democratically elected local government councils, implies a secure and reasonable tenure that supports effective governance at the grassroots.
According to the plaintiffs, the Constitution does not empower state authorities to cut short the tenure of elected local government officials through state legislation.
They are asking the court to declare Section 110(A) of the Anambra State Electoral (Amendment No. 3) Law, 2024 unconstitutional, insisting that the provision, which fixes the tenure of local government chairmen, vice chairmen and councillors at two years, conflicts with the Constitution.
The plaintiffs further urged the court to nullify and remove the disputed section from the state’s laws, maintaining that it violates constitutional provisions.
They also requested a declaration affirming that elected local government officials should serve a uniform four-year term, similar to elected officeholders at the state and federal levels.
In addition, the councillors are seeking perpetual injunctions to stop the defendants from terminating or interfering with their tenure after two years. They also want the court to bar ANSIEC from conducting elections to replace them until the completion of what they described as their constitutional four-year tenure.
The case was filed less than a month before Anambra’s scheduled local government election on August 29.
The Anambra State House of Assembly had previously enacted the Anambra State Electoral (Amendment No. 3) Law, 2024, which reduced the tenure of elected local government chairmen, deputy chairmen and councillors to two years.