The outcome of Saturday’s chairmanship election in Abuja’s most populous council has been thrown into dispute, after the African Democratic Congress candidate and leaders of the Obidient Movement rejected the official result and accused electoral authorities of presiding over a flawed poll.
The Independent National Electoral Commission declared Christopher Maikalangu of the All Progressives Congress winner of the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) chairmanship contest, after he secured 40,295 votes out of 62,861 valid ballots cast.
Moses Paul, the African Democratic Congress candidate, finished second with 12,109 votes, while the Peoples Democratic Party candidate polled 3,398.
But on Monday Paul rejected the result outright, alleging widespread irregularities, voter suppression and manipulation of results across several wards in the capital.
“I stand before you today not as a man diminished by the outcome of Saturday’s event, but as a man empowered by a political movement,” he said in a statement issued in Abuja. “While I firmly believe … that we earned the sacred mandate of the people, I strongly condemn the declared results, as they do not reflect the true will of the residents of Abuja.”
He accused unnamed actors of undermining the integrity of the process and weakening public confidence in democracy, pointing to alleged intimidation of party supporters and instances of vote buying.
The rejection was echoed by the Obidient Movement, whose supporters had rallied behind Paul in what they described as a coalition for change. Addressing journalists in Abuja, its national coordinator, Yunusa Tanko, described the poll as “a brazen assault on the very foundations of our democracy”.
“We address you today with a heavy heart, filled with both profound disappointment and righteous anger,” Tanko said. He alleged that ADC party agents were harassed and intimidated and that the conduct of the election suppressed turnout.
Tanko further accused INEC of contributing to voter apathy by dividing polling units without adequate public notice, making it difficult for voters to locate where they were registered. “Many left in frustration,” he said, citing turnout figures he put at about 7%.
He claimed that the intervention of former presidential candidate Peter Obi had helped galvanise participation, but argued that the will of voters was ultimately subverted.
“We were clearly ahead in the polls, and the will of the people was undeniable. Yet, what we witnessed was a criminal subversion of that will,” Tanko said, urging INEC to investigate the allegations and “restore the sanctity of the ballot”.
Efforts to obtain a response from Felix Morka, national publicity secretary of the APC, were unsuccessful. Calls to his phone went unanswered.
The dispute sets the stage for a potential legal battle over control of AMAC, a council whose political significance has grown alongside Abuja’s expanding electorate, and underscores once again the fragility of public trust in Nigeria’s electoral process.
