The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has ordered that some of the staff in Kuje Area Council and Kabusa ward in the Municipal that caused logistic delay during last week Abuja Area Council elections be queried.
The commission also ordered that the transporter that caused some delay in Kwali Area Council will be blacklisted.
INEC Chairman Prof. Joash Amupitan, at a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) on Wednesday, said 45 percent poll opening on election day at 8:30 am fell short of standards.
“It undermines public confidence. And it will not be tolerated,” he said.
Prof. Amupitan also addressed the issue of ‘voter migration’ in Abuja, and denied that was voter migration during the election.
He explained that INEC had in 2022, carried expansion of voters’ access to polling units.
According to him, there is over 56,000 additional polling units were created nationwide, which brought the total from 119,972 to over 176,000.
“In order to populate the newly created units, many of which initially had zero registered voters, about 6.7 million voters were redistributed from approximately 12,000 congested polling units to new 17,000 less congested ones across the country in 2022,” he said.
He disclosed that in the FCT alone, 411 polling units were decongested, and about 580,000 voters were redistributed to 1,156 polling units.
“That exercise was carried out four years ago in 2022, not in 2026. The same voters in FCT voted in those polling units during the 2023 general election,” he explained.
He added that during the mock accreditation and election on February 7 in the FCT, “several voters turned out, but they could not vote mainly because their polling units were not among the 289 out of 2822 selected for that exercise.”
Prof. Amupitan added that following complaints by few voters that their polling units were migrated in 2022, but they had difficulty in locating the new ones made him directed that, “for the benefit of those who did not vote in the 2023 general election and whose polling units were migrated in 2022, a fresh text message be sent to all those affected as a refresher to ensure that everyone willing to vote would locate their polling units with ease.”
“In addition, I directed that the voter register be displayed again at least four days in all the affected polling units so that voters could check their names ahead of the election in the FCT.”
He regretted that despite widespread publicity, display of the register of voters and the deployment of text messages and emails to affected voters in the days preceding the election, some voters still experienced difficulties locating their polling units.
According to him, the lesson learnt by the commission was that policies might be sound but if citizens do not understand the processes, the objective is only half achieved.
He directed the RECs to intensify voter education and sensitisation in their
respective states and commended the peaceful conduct of the FCT election in all the polling units and in Kano and Rivers State constituencies.
Prof. Amupitan however, admitted an ugly incident that occurred in Kuje and Kwali Area Councils, where thugs invaded collation centre during collation of results.
