By Chioma Gabriel, Deputy Editor
Governorship and House of Assembly elections, perceived as the most crucial to the electorate comes up in 72 hours.

However, elections would not hold in 12 states of the federation and these include Kogi, Bayelsa, Adamawa, Cross River and Sokoto States where the  Court of Appeal in Abuja ruled  on the one_year tenure extension for their  governors .

The tenure for the Kogi State governor expires  April 5, 2012 while that of  Sokoto expires  May 28, 2012.

The tenure for Adamawa expires  April 30, 2012  and that of Cross River ends  August 28, 2012;
Bayelsa Governor’s tenure would also expire  May 29, 2012. Other states where there will be no governorship election today are Anambra State where its governor Peter Obi, of  All Progressive Grand Alliance assumed office in 2010;  Osun State where Rauf Aregbesola of  ACN took office in 2010;  Edo State where Adams Oshiomhole of ACN came on board in 2008; Ekiti State where  Kayode Fayemi of ACN took office in 2010  Ondo State where  Olusegun Mimiko of  LP was sworn in  2009 and Kaduna and Bauchi where INEC rescheduled the elections on account of the violence that trailed the outcome of the last week’s presidential election.

List of current state governors

The current party affiliation of the 36 state governors is:
* 28 People’s Democratic Party                 (PDP)
* 3 All Nigeria People’s Party                 (ANPP)
* 3 Action Congress                         (ACN)
* 1 All Progressives Grand Alliance             (APGA)
* 1 Labour Party                         (LP)

Current  Governors and their parties
Abia State — Theodore Orji             —     PDP
Adamawa State — Murtala Nyako         —     PDP
Akwa Ibom State — Godswill Akpabio         —     PDP
Anambra State — Peter Obi             —     APGA
Bauchi State — Isa Yuguda             —     PDP
Bayelsa State — Timipre Sylva             —     PDP
Benue State — Gabriel Suswam             —     PDP
Borno State — Ali Modu Sheriff              —     ANPP
Cross River State — Liyel Imoke             —     PDP
Delta State — Emmanuel Uduaghan         —     PDP
Ebonyi State — Martin Elechi             —     PDP
Edo State — Adams Oshiomhole             —     ACN
Ekiti State — Kayode Fayemi            —     ACN
Enugu State — Sullivan Chime             —     PDP
Gombe State — Mohammed Danjuma Goje     —     PDP
Imo State — Ikedi Ohakim                 —     PDP
Jigawa State — Sule Lamido             —     PDP
Kaduna State — Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa     —     PDP
Kano State — Ibrahim Shekarau             —     ANPP
Katsina State — Ibrahim Shema             —     PDP
Kebbi State — Usman Saidu Nasamu Dakingari — PDP
Kogi State — Ibrahim Idris             —     PDP
Kwara State — Bukola Saraki             —     PDP
Lagos State — Babatunde Fashola         —     ACN
Nasarawa State — Aliyu Doma             —     PDP
Niger State — Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu     —     PDP
Ogun State — Gbenga Daniel             —     PDP
Ondo State — Olusegun Mimiko         —     LP
Osun    —    Rauf Aregbesola                —      ACN
Oyo State — Christopher Alao-Akala         —     PDP
Plateau State — Jonah Jang             —     PDP
Rivers State — Rotimi Amaechi             —     PDP
Sokoto State — Aliyu Wamakko             —     PDP
Taraba State — Danbaba Suntai             —     PDP
Yobe State — Ibrahim Geidam             —    ANPP
Zamfara State — Mahmud Shinkafi         —     PDP

2nd Term Governors
Some governors amongst the 36 governors of the federation are not eligible to contest elections on Tuesday because they will be concluding their second term in office on May 29, 2011 and therefore are no longer eligible  to contest.
Ali Modu Sheriff of Borno State,                 (ANPP)
Bukola Saraki of Kwara state,                     (PDP)
Gbenga Daniel of Ogun,                     (PDP)
Ibrahim Idris of  Kogi State,                     (PDP)
Ibrahim Shekarau of  Kano State,                 (ANPP)
Mohammed Danjuma Goje of Gombe State         (PDP)

Governors seeking second term in office
Abia State — Theodore Orji,                 —     PDP
Akwa Ibom State — Godswill    Akpabio         —     PDP
Bauchi State — Isa Yuguda                 —     PDP
Benue State — Gabriel Suswam             —     PDP
Delta State — Emmanuel Uduaghan         —     PDP
Ebonyi State — Martin Elechi            —     PDP
Enugu State — Sullivan Chime             —     PDP
Imo State — Ikedi Ohakim                 —     PDP
Jigawa State — Sule Lamido                 —     PDP
Kaduna State — Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa         —     PDP
Katsina State — Ibrahim Shema             —     PDP
Kebbi State — Usman Saidu Nasamu Dakingari —     PDP
Lagos State — Babatunde Fashola             —     ACN
Nasarawa State — Aliyu Doma             —     PDP
Niger State — Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu         —     PDP
Oyo State — Christopher Alao_Akala         —     PDP
Plateau State — Jonah Jang                 —     PDP
Rivers State — Rotimi Amaechi             —     PDP
Taraba State — Danbaba Suntai             —     PDP
Yobe State — Ibrahim Geidam             —     ANPP
Zamfara State — Mahmud Shinkafi             —     PDP

What the constitution says on election of governor

Election of a Governor
Section 178: -(1) “An election to the office of Governor of a state shall be held on a date to be appointed by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

(2) An election to the office of Governor of a State shall be held on a date not earlier than sixty days and not later than thirty days before the expiration of the term of office of the last holder.”

Section 179 (1): “A candidate for an election to the office of Governor of a State shall be deemed to have been duly elected to such office where being the only candidate after the close nominated for the election.

Sub section (a) “he has a majority of YES votes over NO votes cast at the election; and (b) he has not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in each of at least two-thirds of all the local government areas in the State.”

But where the only candidate fails to be elected in accordance with this subsection, then there shall be fresh nominations.

Subsection (2) “A candidate for an election to the office of Governor a State shall be deemed to have been duly elected where, there being two or more candidates.

“(a) he has the highest number of votes cast at the election (b) one among the remaining candidates whose majority of votes in the highest number of local government areas in the state. So however that where there are more than one candidate with a majority of votes.”