Africa-Press – Nigeria. The Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Minister, Nyesom Wike, has commended the peaceful conduct of Saturday’s chairmanship and councillorship elections across the six Area Councils in the Federal Capital Territory.
The minister, who personally monitored the election, also expressed satisfaction with residents’ participation, noting that although voter turnout was low in the city centre, the large number of residents in the satellite towns who came out to vote for candidates of their choice was impressive.
He said, “We thank God that everywhere is peaceful. The problem we have is low voter turnout, particularly in the cities, and that has always been the case. But going round some of the satellite towns, you can see that it is quite impressive.
“Coming to this polling unit (Ketti Primary School), you can see the massive turnout here, as with other polling units in satellite towns we visited. It is unfortunate that in the city there is very low turnout. It is always the case.
“What’s important is that the election is peaceful, no violence, no snatching of ballot papers or ballot boxes.”
He commended security agencies in the FCT as well as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for what he described as a job well done.
Speaking on the deployment of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), Wike said, “First of all, they just started counting votes. It is only when the votes are counted that we can properly assess it, but from what is happening here, everything appears to be moving well in terms of the use of BVAS. So, we commend INEC for what we have seen so far.”
The minister also called on residents to remain law-abiding as the election process continues to its conclusion, urging them not to allow disgruntled individuals to derail the exercise.
Areas visited by the minister included polling units in Garki, Garki Village, Karu, Karshi, Wasa, Kabusa, Shereti and Ketti, among others.
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