475 Jostle For 6 FCT Chairmanship, 62 Councillorship Slots

No fewer than 475 candidates sponsored by 18 political parties are vying for the 68 constituencies involving six area council chairmen and 62 councillors in Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Councils Election slated for February 12.

The FCT is the only part of Nigeria where INEC conducts local government elections while State Electoral Commissions (SIECs) conduct elections at the third tier of government in the 36 states of the federation.

Festus Okoye, INEC national commissioner and chairman of, information and voter education committee, announced this after the commission’s regular weekly meeting on Thursday and an extraordinary meeting last Friday.

Okoye said INEC is finalising all arrangements for the election as Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) for all new registrants as well as requests for transfers and replacement of damaged cards have been printed and are available in all the six area councils for collection.

He appealed to citizens who applied for fresh registration as well as transfers and replacement of the PVCs to do so immediately and avoid a last-minute rush for the cards, as has been the case in the past.

The INEC spokesperson also disclosed that the commission has scheduled the first regular quarterly consultative meetings for 2022 next week, beginning with political parties on Tuesday, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) -Wednesday, Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) – Thursday and Media Organisations – Friday.

He said the commission has scheduled bye-elections for six constituencies in four states, including Akure North/Akure South Federal Constituency, Ondo State; Jos North/Bassa Federal and Pankshin South State Constituencies of Plateau State; Ogoja/Yala Federal Constituency, Cross River State; Akpabuyo State Constituency, Cross River State and Ngor-Okpala State Constituency, Imo State.

Okoye stated that the elections will hold on February 26, 2022, immediately after the FCT area council elections to enable the commission to clear most of the bye-elections, focusing on the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections and ongoing preparations for the 2023 general elections.

“Some of the vacancies arose as a result of the death of the previous occupants; substantial disruption of the electoral process and fulfilment of constitutional and legal requirements in the electoral process.

“The commission considered the issues that led to the vacancies and the rescheduling of some of the elections as well as the security situation in some of the states. The commission decided to combine the Ekiti East 1 State Constituency election with the governorship election in Ekiti, which will hold on June 18, 2022.

“The commission is consulting with security agencies and the critical stakeholders relating to the vacancy in Shinkafi State Constituency of Zamfara State while the Speaker of the Kaduna State House of Assembly has not declared vacancy in relation to Giwa State Constituency of Kaduna State.

“The official notification for the elections will be published on Monday, January 24, 2022. political parties shall conduct their primaries including resolution of disputes arising from the primaries between January 26 and February 5, 2022 while the last day for submission of list of nominated candidates is at 6 pm on February 9, 2022, and this must be done through the commission’s online nomination portal”, the statement read in parts.

Okoye said any political party that present to the commission the name of a candidate who does not meet the qualifications stipulated in the constitution and the Electoral Act shall be guilty of an offence and on conviction shall be liable to a maximum fine of N500,000.