The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Christopher Maikalangu of the All Progressives Congress as the duly elected chairman of the Abuja Municipal Area Council in the Federal Capital Territory elections.
The declaration followed the area council chairmanship election held on February 21, 2026. The collation and announcement of results were conducted under the supervision of Prof. Andrew Abue, the collation officer for the AMAC election.
Christopher Maikalangu, the incumbent AMAC chairman, secured 40,295 votes out of 62,861 valid votes cast. He was returned to office after obtaining the highest number of votes among the candidates.
Prof. Abue disclosed that the African Democratic Congress candidate, Paul Ogidi, came in second with 12,109 votes. The Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate, Dantani Zanda, placed third with 3,398 votes.
The total votes cast in the election were 65,197, with 2,336 rejected ballots. The number of accredited voters was 65,676, drawn from 837,338 registered voters in the council, Prof. Abue said.
The results sheet provided a detailed breakdown of the votes obtained by all 15 political parties that contested the election.
In addition to Maikalangu, Paul Ogidi (ADC) and Dantani Zanda (PDP), the list included candidates from Accord, Action Alliance, Action Democratic Party, All Progressives Grand Alliance, Allied Peoples Movement, Action Peoples Party, Boot Party, New Nigeria Peoples Party, National Rescue Movement, Peoples Redemption Party, Social Democratic Party, Young Progressives Party, and Zenith Labour Party.
The collation officer affirmed that Maikalangu “having certified the requirements of the law, is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected.”
Representatives of several political parties signed the result sheets at the collation centre, including agents from the ADC, APC, APGA, YPP, and NNPP.
Gambo Babale, the APC collation agent, described the election and collation process as credible and transparent.
He said processes at the polling units, ward collation centres, and the AMAC collation centre were conducted properly.
Babale noted that the PDP won two ward councillor seats in Karu and Karishi as evidence of transparency in the exercise. He also congratulated Maikalangu and said the victory would help deliver more democratic dividends to the people of AMAC.
The Young Progressives Party ward collation agent, Abdullahi Ibrahim, also described the process as transparent and congratulated the winner.
