• PC wins 1, collation ongoing in another

From Fred Itua, Abuja

TWENTY four hours after the conduct of elections in the vari­ous Area Councils of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), yester­day, declared four out of the six chairmanship positions incon­clusive. The four Area Councils are Abaji, Gwagwalada, Abuja Municipal and Kuje.

The other Area Councils where elections were conducted are Bwari and Kwali. The contest were between the two dominant political parties, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peo­ples Democratic Party (PDP).

There are 62 councillorship seats up for grabs in the six Area Councils of the territory. In the results released so far, the APC candidate in Abaji, Alhaji Ab­dulrahman Ajiya scored 12,792, while the incumbent PDP chairman, Alhaji Yahaya Garba Gawu scored 10,076. Returning officer, Mr. Daniel Emmanuel declared the election inconclu­sive, citing irregularities in some areas.

In Gwagwalada Area Coun­cil, APC candidate, Abubakar Giri scored 4,546. Candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alli­ance (APGA), Adamu Mustapha polled 15,272, while the PDP candidate, Abdullahi Umar scored 6,082. Again, the return­ing officer, Adamu Tanimu de­clared the election inconclusive.

In Kuje, APC’s Abdullahi Galadima polled 13,549, while APGA’s scribe, Haruna Esu scored 5,515. The incumbent PDP candidate, Shaban Tete se­cured 11,,478 votes. The return­ing officer, Nicholas Belikatu also declared it inconclusive.

Results declared by INEC indicate that the candidate of APC in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Abudulahi Adamu Candido polled 26,598 votes to beat his closest rival, Bitrus Tanko of the PDP, who scored 21,230 votes. However, the returning officer, Prof. Sun­day Ododo declared the election inconclusive.

In Bwari Area Council, can­didate of APC, Musa Dikko has been declared winner by INEC. He polled 18, 056 votes to beat his closest rival of the PDP, Andrew Gwani, who scored 13,279.

As at the time of filing in this report, collation of elec­tion results in Kwali Area was still ongoing. Elections were cancelled in parts of the Area Council on Saturday, following reported cases of violence and snatching of electoral materials by political thugs.