Photo: Hon. Maikalangu
By: Mandy Park
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared incumbent Chairman of the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Christopher Maikalangu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), re-elected in the just-concluded Federal Capital Territory (FCT) area council elections.
Announcing the result, the AMAC Collation Officer, Prof. Andrew Abue, said Maikalangu secured the highest number of votes cast in the election.
According to the official figures, the APC candidate polled 40,295 votes out of 62,861 valid votes to emerge winner of the contest.
“That Maikalangu of the APC, having satisfied the requirements of the law, is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected,” Abue announced at the collation centre.
The candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Paul Ogidi, came second with 12,109 votes, while Dantani Zanda of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) placed third with 3,398 votes.
INEC disclosed that 2,336 votes were rejected, bringing the total number of votes cast to 65,197. The commission also stated that 837,338 voters were registered in AMAC, while 65,676 were accredited for the election.
A total of 12 political parties fielded candidates for the AMAC chairmanship seat.
Reacting to the outcome, the APC Collation Agent, Gambo Babale, described the election and collation process as credible and transparent.
“INEC has done so well. We’ve seen the processes across all the polling units, the ward collation centres, and here at the AMAC Area Council collation centre. Everything was done perfectly well,” he said.
Babale noted that the opposition PDP won two ward councillorship seats in Karu and Karishi, which he said underscored the transparency of the process.
He congratulated Maikalangu on his re-election and urged him to continue delivering the dividends of democracy to residents of AMAC.
Babale added that the result signalled the APC’s preparedness for future electoral contests in 2025.
