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INEC dismissed the most widely shared allegation of result manipulation from last Saturday’s Federal Capital Territory area council elections, a social media claim that the ruling All Progressives Congress had recorded more than ten times its actual vote count at a Kwali polling unit, while opposition parties used the elections’ aftermath to signal that the APC’s comprehensive victory across the capital would not define the national contest in 2027.
The allegation centred on the Kuroko Health Centre polling unit in Yangoji Ward, Kwali Area Council, where social media posts circulating widely during and after the election claimed the APC had been awarded 1,219 votes, a figure mathematically impossible given the unit’s 345 registered voters and 213 accredited voters on election day. The posts were shared across X and WhatsApp before any official clarification was available, and generated significant volume of commentary questioning the integrity of the broader exercise.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, FCT Resident Electoral Commissioner Aminu Idris categorically described the claim as false, misleading, and a misinterpretation of the actual figures recorded at the polling unit.
INEC explained that the misinformation stemmed from a simple entry error made by the presiding officer while recording the party’s score. The commission clarified that the official result showed the party scored 121 votes, not 1,219 as circulated. The presiding officer initially recorded 122 votes after sorting and counting ballots, then discovered an overcount of one. She cancelled the final digit and inserted a corrected figure, producing 121. The corrected result was signed by party agents present at the polling unit and entered into Ward Collation Form EC8B.
Idris noted that the commission’s technological safeguards make the alleged manipulation technically impossible. The BVAS system performs internal validation checks to ensure total votes entered do not exceed accredited voters, and over-voting is automatically flagged and cannot be finalised.
“The BVAS device would have rejected the entry instantly” had 1,219 votes actually been entered, he said. The number of accredited voters was 213; the score entered for the party concerned was 121; the total votes recorded were consistent with accreditation figures.
INEC urged the public and media commentators to verify figures against official IReV portal records before drawing conclusions capable of eroding public confidence in the electoral process. It said the FCT election had been conducted in substantial compliance with the Electoral Act and INEC guidelines. All other results flagged on social media as potentially altered were cross-checked and found accurate before collation.
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The rebuttal addressed one specific allegation, but broader grievances about the conduct of the elections extended further. The African Action Congress rejected the results entirely, alleging a coordinated assault on the democratic process. The party claimed that before election day in Kwali, hundreds of voters were disenfranchised after discovering their permanent voter cards had already been collected by unknown persons, a claim it described as indicative of institutional compromise. The AAC called for an independent investigation into the alleged disappearance of PVCs, prosecution of security personnel and politicians involved in electoral violence, and nullification of results from affected polling units. INEC had not publicly responded to those specific claims as of Tuesday.
The APC won five of the six contested area councils in the capital, AMAC, Bwari, Abaji, Kuje, and Kwali, while the PDP retained Gwagwalada. The APC also swept by-elections held on the same day in Rivers State and Kano State. Taken together, those three exercises cemented the ruling party’s position heading into the 2027 general election cycle.
The African Democratic Congress interpreted those results cautiously. National Treasurer Mani Ahmad, speaking on Channels Television’s Morning Brief programme, said the outcomes should not be read as predictive of 2027.
“If anybody expects that the results of these elections in the FCT, Rivers and Kano would be our scorecard and that nothing will change in 2027, then they will be in for a big surprise,” he said. He indicated the party was working to consolidate an opposition front, integrate experienced individuals into its structure, and develop an electoral strategy capable of translating voter discontent into results. “Significant efforts are underway to unite the front team, integrate experienced individuals, and develop a clear strategy for winning future elections.”
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The FCT elections were the first conducted under the 2026 Electoral Act and the first to test INEC’s new management team under chairman Professor Joash Amupitan. The commission’s swift public rebuttal of the Kwali manipulation claim, backed by granular technical explanation of why the BVAS architecture renders the alleged fraud impossible, reflected a deliberate strategy of transparent, system-evidenced communication designed to contain viral misinformation before it compounds electoral distrust. Whether that approach reaches the populations consuming unverified social media content with the same speed as the original false claim remains the fundamental communication challenge facing Nigerian electoral administration in the lead-up to 2027.
