ALLAFRICA

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won four of the six area councils in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Chairmanship and Councillorship elections conducted last Saturday, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said yesterday in Abuja.

Mr Okezie Nwankwo, Head of Public Affairs, INEC FCT, confirmed that PDP won the chairmanship seats of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Bwari, Abaji and Kuje area councils; while the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) won the chairmanship seats of Gwagwalada and Kwali councils. The electoral officer (EO) of AMAC, Mr Musa Usman, announced that PDP candidate Mr Mika Jiba, won the AMAC seat with 14, 600 votes.

In Kuje, Mr Danladi Zhin of PDP was declared winner with 12, 349 votes, while Mr Samuel Lanto of ANPP came second with 5, 088 votes. Mr Peter Yohana of PDP won with 10,304 votes in Bwari Area Council, while ANPP's Yahaya Isa scored 4, 815 votes to emerge second. ANPP's Zakari Angulu Dobi garnered 10,990 out of the 71,055 votes cast in Gwagwalada Area Council to emerge the winner of the chairmanship poll; Nwankwo said that PDP won in Abaji, while ANPP won in Kwali.

A total of 2,566 INEC staff officiated while 2,400 National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members were mobilised for the exercise. Sixteen political parties with 513 candidates participated in the election that saw 51 chairmanship, 50 vice chairmen and 412 councillorship candidates contesting.

In the distribution of eligible voters across the six local councils, Abaji had 27, 346 voters, Bwari 109, 593, Gwagwalada 80, 264 voters, Kuje 52, 124 voters, Kwali 40, 366 and AMAC with the largest number of 459, 926.