By Sarah NEGEDU
Saturday’s Area Council elections in the Federal Capital Territory was marred by low voters turnout, especially in Bwari and the Abuja Municipal Area Council where many polling units recorded only a trickle of voters hours after accreditation began.
Across multiple locations visited by reporters, polling booths remained nearly empty, with election officials sitting idle and materials largely untouched. At several centres in AMAC, voters trickled in slowly; at others, no one had shown up long after accreditation began.
In Bwari, the situation was equally stark. At Polling Unit 013, Nomadic Primary School, only a few voters had arrived as at mid-morning, leaving officials with long stretches of inactivity and no queues to manage.
The pattern was consistent across AMAC. At Polling Unit 110 beside GSS Garki, only three voters had been sighted. The unit also struggled with inadequate ink, prompting the presiding officer to seek water to salvage what was left so an elderly woman could vote.
A police officer at the scene openly criticised the electoral body over the shortage lamenting, “See what INEC has brought us. They get so much money to conduct this election, and they cannot even provide basic materials like ink for the few people who bothered to show up.”
At Polling Unit 115 opposite Garki General Hospital, only three of 44 registered voters had cast ballots by 10:00 a.m., while Polling Unit 041 in Area 3 recorded none of its expected ten voters by 10:05 a.m. The lowest turn out across polling units visited was at Polling Unit 12 in front of the University of Abuja Sustainable Development Center, where only 20 of 1,900 registered voters had turned out by 10:30 a.m.
A presiding officer who asked not to be named described the turnout as far below expectations. “Sincerely, we did not expect the turnout to be this poor at this time. We have about 1,900 voters to accredit and attend to, but surprisingly, not more than 20 have turned out since we started accreditation at 8:45 a.m., and now it’s already 10:30 a.m.
“It is obvious there is a serious voter apathy in this election. We thought by now we would have processed almost half of our accredited voters, but the reverse is the case,” he said.
When asked why voters were staying away, he added, “The reason for it, I can’t really say. But perhaps it is because many people feel that the winners are already predetermined. They don’t believe their vote will count, so they don’t see a reason to come out.”
The on-ground reality sharply contrasted with INEC’s official update earlier in the day when the Deputy Director of Voter Education, Samuel Bassey, told journalists that accreditation and voting commenced at exactly 8:30 a.m. in most polling units and that officials and materials arrived early in places like Garki and Wuse.
Speaking at the commission’s headquarters, Bassey said senior officials, including National Commissioner Mallam Kudu Haruna and FCT Resident Electoral Commissioner Mallam Aminu Idris, were monitoring the process at the Election Monitoring Center, where reports and emergencies were expected to be handled.
INEC said 1,680,325 registered voters were expected to participate in the polls, with 17 political parties fielding candidates for 62 councillorship and six chairmanship positions. Voting is expected to end at 2:30 p.m.
