Governorship elections will hold in all but four states across the country in January, the electoral commission said yesterday, ruling out elongated tenure for six governors who went through rerun elections in 2008 and 2009.

Based on this decision announced by INEC last night, tenures of governors whose initial elections in 2007 were later nullified by the courts will end on May 29, 2011, with the counting starting when they first assumed office in 2007 and not when they took second oaths of office after rerun elections.

The affected governors are Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Ibrahim Idris (Kogi), Timipre Sylva (Bayelsa), Liyel Imoke (Cross River) and Segun Oni (Ekiti).

The four states exempted from the governorship elections in January are Rivers, Edo, Ondo and Anambra, where the governors did not assume office on May 29, 2007 for different reasons, spokesman for INEC Emmanuel Umenger said in a statement in Abuja last night.

"Following the amendment of Section 180 of the 1999 Constitution, the Independent National Electoral Commission is to conduct governorship elections in Adamawa, Bayelsa, Cross River, Ekiti, Kogi and Sokoto states in January 2011, having regard to the fact that the incumbent governors won rerun/supplementary elections," Umenger said in the statement.

"The commission is also set to conduct governorship elections in Rivers, Edo and Ondo states in June 2011, July 2012 and November 2012 respectively, having regard to the dates the incumbent governors took their oaths of office.

"The commission is further to conduct governorship election in Anambra State in November 2014, having regards to the fact that the incumbent governor took his oath of office in March 2010."

The six governors first won elections in April 2007 and assumed office on May 29, the same year, but the Court of Appeal nullified their elections. They went through rerun elections and won, and then took fresh oaths of office, based on which they contend that their tenures were starting anew.

But the amended constitution, ratified by the state houses of assembly and National Assembly in July, said no governor should enjoy an elongation of tenure because of rerun election.

Section 180 (2) (c) of the amended constitution says: "in the determination of the four-year term (of a governor), where a rerun election has taken place and the person earlier sworn in wins the rerun election, the time spent in office before the date the election was annulled, shall be taken into account."

A governorship aspirant in Adamawa State last month wrote INEC, asking for clarification on whether governorship elections would hold next year in the state, or in 2012, based on the rerun election held in 2008.

A senior official at INEC yesterday gave an insight into how the decision was arrived, saying the commission acted on the legal advice of Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke.

The official said the commission asked its legal department to look at the constitutional provisions as regards the tenure of the affected governors.

"The legal department recommended that the advice of the Attorney General and should be sought. A letter was written to him and he replied. Apart from that, the commission also sought the legal advice of some renowned legal luminaries in the country who all said that those governors cannot serve more than four years including the one year or so they were in office before the elections were nullified," the official said.

But the affected governors yesterday faulted INEC's decision, saying it amounted to the usurpation of the powers of courts to interpret laws.

Kogi governor Idris, through his spokesman Richard Elesho, said some people were still in court over the matter and that the results should be awaited. Bayelsa Commissioner for Information, Mr Nathan Egba, said in a statement in Yenagoa that Governor Sylva would seek proper judicial clarification.

In Adamawa, PDP state secretary also faulted the electoral commission, saying it was tantamount to backdating the election laws.

For his part, Ekiti governor Oni, though his press secretary Lanre Ojo, said INEC's pronouncement amounted to changing the rules of the game midway.

In July, a Federal High Court in Jos ruled that Oni's tenure would end on May 29, 2011 because his rerun election was held in only 63 units in 10 local governments of the state. Justice Ambrose Allagoa said Oni's tenure started to run as from May 29, 2007 when he was sworn in and not May 6, 2009 when he was later sworn in after the appellate court ordered a rerun election. But Oni has appealed the decision.

In a notice published earlier yesterday, INEC secretary Abdullahi Kaugama said, "Pursuant to the powers conferred on the Independent National Electoral Commission by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), the Electoral Act 2010 and all other powers conferred on it in that behalf, the Independent National Electoral Commission hereby informs all stakeholders and the general public that governorship elections will hold in all the states of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in January 2011 except in Rivers, Edo, Ondo and Anambra states".

Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi assumed office in October 2007 when the Supreme Court ousted Mr. Celestine Omehia on the grounds that Amaechi was the rightful winner of the PDP governorship primaries in December 2006.

In Edo, Governor Adams Oshiomhole took oath of office in November 2008 after the Court of Appeal declared him winner of the guber election and nullified the election of Oserhienmen Osunbor.

Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko was sworn in March 2009, to replace Segun Agagu, whose election the Appeal Court nullified.

For his part, Anambra State Governor Peter Obi's second term started in March this year.