The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the major opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) will on Saturday (today) test their popularity in the nation’s seat of power with the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council elections.
A total of 473 candidates across the 18 political parties will be contesting for the six Chairmanship and 62 councillorship positions. But the APC and PDP appear to be the main contenders.
Assuring a credible poll, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), said that the lessons learnt from the Anambra State governorship election were relied on in planning the FCT Council elections.
INEC Chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu, while hosting stakeholders ahead of the election, stressed that, “With regard to election technology for voter accreditation, the Commission has reviewed the performance of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in the recent Anambra State Governorship election. Lessons learnt from that election have been considered in planning for the Area Council elections.
“The BVAS have been configured and ready to deploy for the election. We have also made adequate arrangements for technical support and transportation to speedily respond in the unlikely event of glitches on Election Day. Similarly, election results will be uploaded to the INEC Result Viewing portal (IReV) in real-time when voting ends and votes are counted at polling units on Election Day.”
He continued, “the Commission is encouraged by the peaceful atmosphere in the FCT. So far, there are no adverse reports of clashes between supporters of different parties and not many incidents of hate or inciting speeches during the electioneering campaign. I commend the stakeholders for their advocacy for peaceful elections. I appeal to political parties and candidates to continue to show maturity and decorum in the last few days of campaign and on Election Day and beyond.
“As I have said repeatedly, the FCT is the only part of the country where INEC is required by law to conduct Local Government elections. Elections are therefore conducted regularly and consistently every three years, including bye-elections as the need arises. The Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the forthcoming election was released by the Commission about a year ago in March 2021.
“We have steadily implemented all the activities on schedule, leaving only the last day of campaign by political parties on Thursday 10th February 2022 and Election Day which is Saturday 12th February 2022.”
Police suspend planned movement restriction
However, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command of the Nigeria Police has decided to relax the restriction of movement as earlier announced for the Area Council Election scheduled to take place today.
According to a statement issued by the FCT Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Josephine Adeh, the FCT Commissioner of Police, Babaji Sunday, stated that: “Consequently, members of the public are hereby advice to go about their normal legitimate business without the fear of harassment or molestation of any kind from any quarters”.
Babaji assured members of the public and residents of the FCT of the provision of watertight security before, during and after the election, urging members of the public to come out in their numbers to vote for candidates of their choice.
He also called on residents to remain vigilant and report any suspicious or abnormal occurrence to the Police through the following emergency lines: 08032003913, 08061581938, 07057337653 and 08028940883.