Says no voter migration carried out ahead councils’poll

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has clarified that no voters was  migrated to new or different polling units (PUs) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) ahead of Saturday’s area council elections. In a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Adedayo Oketola, addressed concerns regarding voter placement. […]

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has clarified that no voters was  migrated to new or different polling units (PUs) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) ahead of Saturday’s area council elections.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Adedayo Oketola, addressed concerns regarding voter placement. While noting that the elections were conducted successfully, the Commission acknowledged that some voters faced difficulties locating their designated polling units on election day.

However, Oketola dismissed claims that the Commission had migrated voters to new locations shortly before the polls, asserting that nothung like that happened.

 

“Expansion of Voter Access to PUs” initiative in 2022, INEC created over 56,000 additional polling units nationwide. This increased the total number of polling units from 119,972 to over 176,000.

To populate these newly created units—many of which initially had zero registered voters—6.7 million voters were redistributed from approximately 12,000 congested units to 17,000 less-congested locations across the country.

“In the FCT specifically, 411 polling units were decongested, with approximately 580,000 voters redistributed across 1,156 polling units,” Oketola stated.

He emphasized: “The Commission notes that no new voter migration was carried out in 2026. The split polling units referenced in recent discussions were created in February 2022, not in 2026.”