INEC appreciates FCT residents, voters for peaceful conduct during Saturday’s polls

*Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission appreciates the residents and electorate in the FCT for their peaceful conduct and cooperation throughout the electoral process held in the capital city last Saturday

Alexander Davis | ConsumerConnect

Following its successful conduct of the FCT Area Council Elections at the weekend, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has expressed appreciation to the residents and electorate in the FCT for their peaceful conduct and cooperation throughout the electoral process in the capital city last Saturday.

ConsumerConnect reports the INEC conducted elections for the positions of Chairman in the six Area Councils of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), as well as for 62 Councillorship seats.

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The Commission said the results of the election were announced late Saturday except that of Kuje Area Council, which it announced at 3:30p.m. Sunday, February 22, 2026.

Wilfred Ifogah, Acting Director of Voter Education and Publicity (VEP) at INEC, who affirmed this in a statement Sunday, said the Commission’s Election Operations Dashboard indicated that 45 percent of polling units opened for voting as at 8:30a.m., while all polling units were confirmed open by 10:00a.m. on Election Day.

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The statement noted the Commission, however, observed challenges encountered by some voters in locating their designated polling units.

Contrary to the claim in some quarters that some voters were migrated to another/ new polling units different from their original polling units, the Commission wishes to state categorically that voters were not migrated, what the Commission did was to create split polling units in large polling units with voters registration of over 1,250 voters to avoid congestion on election day.

INEC explained the split units are located some few meters away from the original polling units within the same premises.

It said the public would recall that the Commission displayed the Register of Voters at designated centres/split polling units four days to the Area Council elections to enable voters confirm their details and polling unit locations.

Text messages/e-mails were sent to the affected voters Wednesday 18, Thursday 19, Friday 20 and Saturday 21 February, 2026, indicating the actual locations of their split polling units, were intended solely as reminders to assist them in identifying their current polling units.

The Commission also wishes to inform the public that as at 2:00p.m. Sunday, 22nd February 2026, the upload of polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) Portal had reached 93 percent.

Ifogah further stated the residents of the FCT and other interested members of the public could access results from the six Area Councils via the portal.

While the Commission remains concerned about voter apathy, it notes a significant improvement compared to the previous election.

INEC also related that in the 2022 Area Council election, a total of 148,685 voters were recorded, representing 9.4% of registered voters.

In the current election, over 239,210 voters voted, representing approximately 15% of the 1,680,315 total registered voters in the FCT.

The delay in the results of Kuje Area Council is due to the difficult terrain of Kabi ward, which delayed the final collation of the Area Council results.

INEC, therefore, appreciated the electorate in the FCT for their cooperation and participation throughout the process.

“The participation recorded across the six Area Councils is indicative of citizens’ continued trust in building democracy and the electoral system,” the statement noted.

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