The Independent National Electoral Commission on Saturday declared Christopher Maikalangu of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of the Abuja Municipal Area Council chairmanship election in the Federal Capital Territory.
The result was announced at the AMAC collation centre by the council’s Collation Officer, Prof. Andrew Abue, after the completion of vote counting from all wards.
Maikalangu, who is the current chairman of AMAC, secured 40,295 votes out of 62,861 valid votes cast in the election. His closest rival, Paul Ogidi of the African Democratic Congress, scored 12,109 votes, while Dantani Zanda of the Peoples Democratic Party received 3,398 votes.
The total number of votes cast in the election stood at 65,197. Out of this figure, 2,336 votes were rejected. The number of accredited voters was 65,676 from a total of 837,338 registered voters in the area council.
Other parties also recorded votes in the contest. Eze Chukwu of the All Progressives Grand Alliance polled 1,111 votes, Jibrin Alhassan of the New Nigeria Peoples Party scored 1,694 votes, and Simon Obinna of the Social Democratic Party got 2,185 votes.
Agbon Vaniah of the Accord party received 403 votes, while Richard Elizabeth of the Action Democratic Party secured 588 votes. Iber Shimakaha of the Peoples Redemption Party polled 90 votes and Swani Buba of the Zenith Labour Party scored 189 votes.
Nemiebika Tamunomiesam of the Action Alliance received 108 votes, Chukwu Promise of the Allied Peoples Movement scored 122 votes, Ugoh Michael of the Action Peoples Party got 32 votes, Thomas Happiness of the Boot Party secured 43 votes, Samson Usani of the National Rescue Movement polled 73 votes, and Madaki Robert of the Young Progressives Party received 421 votes.
After announcing the figures, the Collation Officer returned Maikalangu elected in line with the law, having obtained the highest number of votes.
Party agents from the ADC, APC, APGA, YPP and NNPP signed the result sheets at the collation centre. Representatives of some parties described the exercise as orderly and commended the conduct of the election and collation process.
They also congratulated the winner and called for continued service to residents of AMAC.