The All Progressives Congress (APC) has secured victory in the Kuje Area Council chairmanship election, with Danjuma Shekwolo emerging as the elected Chairman in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) poll.
Shekwolo garnered 17,269 votes, according to the official results.
Returning Officer Prof. Nkiruka Odoh of the University of Abuja, in declaring the outcome, confirmed that Shekwolo, having received the highest number of votes and met all legal requirements, was duly elected and returned as Chairman of Kuje Area Council.
The runner-up in the race was the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Zakwoyi Danlami, who received 15,824 votes. The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate, Abdullahi Galadima, followed with 4,305 votes.
This result marks the completion of chairmanship announcements across all six FCT area councils. Earlier, The Telegraph reported that Joshua Ishaku of the APC won the Bwari Area Council chairmanship after securing 18,466 votes. Christopher Maikalangu of the APC was also declared the winner of the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) after receiving 40,295 votes from a total of 62,861 valid votes cast.
In Gwagwalada Area Council, PDP’s Mohammed Kasim emerged victorious with 22,165 votes, defeating APC’s Yahaya Shehu, who received 17,788 votes. Similarly, Umar Abdullahi Abubakar of the APC won the Abaji Area Council election with 15,536 votes, while the PDP polled 4,547 votes. In Kwali Area Council, APC candidate Nuhu Daniel secured 17,032 votes, beating PDP’s Haruna Pai, who received 8,575 votes.
However, during the collation of results for Kuje, an agent representing the APC, Haruna Jatau, raised objections to the results from two polling units in Gudun Karya Ward. Jatau claimed that in Zagabutu village, the number of voters exceeded the number of accredited voters, and in Huni village, accreditation was done manually instead of using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
“The APC rejects the election results from Gudun Karya,” Jatau said.
In response, the collation officer, Zubairu Mohammed, denied the allegations, stating that BVAS was used for accreditation throughout the ward. Mohammed acknowledged that a polling officer in Huni initially submitted incorrect results under pressure but assured that the figures were later corrected to reflect the data captured by BVAS.
Abubakar Dambo, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner overseeing the Kuje Area Council election, expressed concerns over cancellations in the result sheets but encouraged the APC representative to submit a formal written complaint to the commission.
The collation process for Kuje had been temporarily disrupted on Saturday due to disturbances by hoodlums, but a heavy security presence was noted at the INEC collation center in Soka, Kuje, as officials, observers, party agents, and journalists gathered for the resumed process.
Dambo also addressed the delay in announcing the Kuje chairmanship results, explaining that the issue stemmed from challenges in two wards, Central and Kabi. While results from eight of the ten wards had been declared, the delay was attributed to logistical issues involving the collation officer.
