The All Progressives Congress has so far won three out of the six chairmanship seats in the just-concluded Area Council elections in the Federal Capital Territory, tightening its grip on key councils as collation continues.
Results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) show that the APC cleared the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Bwari Area Council and Kwali Area Council, while the Peoples Democratic Party secured victory in Gwagwalada Area Council.
In AMAC, APC candidate Christopher Maikalangu polled 40,295 votes to defeat his closest rival from the African Democratic Congress (ADC), who garnered 12,109 votes. The PDP candidate trailed with 3,398 votes.
Maikanlagu is the incumbent chairman of the area council.
Similarly, in Bwari, the APC’s Joshua Ishaku clinched the chairmanship seat with 18,466 votes. The ADC candidate came second with 4,254 votes, while the candidate of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) secured 3,515 votes.
The ruling party also prevailed in Kwali, where its candidate, Daniel Nuhu, scored 17,032 votes to defeat the PDP’s Haruna Pai, who polled 8,575 votes.
SaharaReporters had earlier reported how the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secured a major political win in Nigeria’s capital territory after its candidate, Mohammed Kasim, emerged victorious in the Gwagwalada Area Council chairmanship election held during the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) local government polls.
Kasim defeated his closest rival from the APC, Yahaya Shehu, after polling 22,165 votes against the APC candidate’s 17,788 votes, according to results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) polled 432 votes. It was followed by the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), which secured 175 votes, and the Young Progressives Party (YPP) with 158 votes.
Several other parties also contested in the election but garnered relatively low support from voters. Party A received 151 votes, the Action Alliance (AA) recorded 116 votes, and the Action Democratic Party (ADP) polled 128 votes.
The Allied Peoples Movement (APM) had the smallest tally, with just 24 votes.
INEC Returning Officer, Philip Akpen, while declaring Kasim winner of the election, described the exercise as peaceful and orderly, noting that voting and collation proceeded without major disruptions across the council area.
The chairmanship election in Gwagwalada Area Council recorded a total of 207,577 registered voters, out of which 46,294 voters were accredited to participate in the poll conducted by INEC.
At the end of voting and collation, 43,960 votes were declared valid, while 1,521 ballots were rejected.
The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) secured 1,687 votes, while the African Democratic Congress (ADC) recorded 1,366 votes.
INEC is expected to announce results for the remaining two Area Councils as collation processes are concluded.
The elections, held across the six Area Councils of the FCT, were closely watched amid heightened political contest between the APC and PDP, with smaller parties struggling to make significant inroads in most of the declared councils.
