FCT ELECTIONS: INEC DENIES CLAIMS OF ALLOCATING VOTES TO APC IN KWALI
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By: Fasasi Hammad
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has refuted viral claims suggesting that over 1,000 votes were illegally awarded to the All Progressives Congress (APC) at a polling unit in Kwali Area Council during last Saturday’s FCT Area Council election.
In a statement issued Tuesday in Abuja, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for the FCT, Aminu Idris, dismissed the reports as “untrue and misleading.”
The controversy arose from the Kuroko Health Centre polling unit in Yangoji Ward, where social media claimed that APC received 1,219 votes despite there being only 345 registered voters and 213 accredited voters.
INEC’s investigation revealed that the discrepancy resulted from a clerical error by the Presiding Officer.
Idris explained that the officer initially recorded 122 votes for APC but noticed an overshoot of one vote during a recount. To correct it, she “cancelled the ‘2’ at the end and placed a ‘1’ in front of it to make it 121.” This manual adjustment was misread online as 1,219 votes.
“The official result recorded and uploaded from the polling unit shows the party scored 121 votes, not 1,219 as circulated on social media,” Idris stated.
He further clarified that the current result management system makes such manipulation “technically impossible,” emphasizing that the BVAS device has internal validation checks that automatically reject entries exceeding the number of accredited voters.
Reaffirming INEC’s commitment to transparency, Idris highlighted that the IReV portal mirrors results uploaded directly from polling units, and the figure of 121 votes remained consistent through Ward and Area Council collation stages.
He urged the public and media to verify information with official records to preserve confidence, stressing that the FCT election was conducted in “substantial compliance with the Electoral Act.”
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