The All Progressives Congress and its candidate, Yahaya Usman, have taken legal action to challenge the outcome of the chairmanship election held in Gwagwalada Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory.
RadarrNews reports that the election took place on February 21, 2026, across 10 wards and 338 polling units.
The Independent National Electoral Commission declared Mohammed Kasim of the Peoples Democratic Party as the winner after he secured 22,165 votes, while Usman polled 17,788 votes.
Not satisfied with the result, the APC and its candidate filed a petition before the election tribunal.
The case, marked FCT/ACEPT/EP/02/2026, seeks to overturn the declaration of the PDP candidate.
In the petition, the party and its candidate claimed that the election did not follow the provisions of the Electoral Act 2026.
They also alleged the presence of corrupt practices and argued that the declared winner did not obtain the highest number of valid votes.
They stated that several irregularities occurred during the election process.
According to them, results in at least six polling units across Kutunku, Ibwa, Tungan Maje, and Ikwa wards were altered. They claimed figures were changed to match the number of accredited voters and to hide cases of over-voting.
The petition also reported cases where entries on result sheets were tampered with.
It stated that cancellations and changes were made in some polling units, raising concerns about the credibility of the figures recorded.
In addition, the APC alleged that in two polling units, votes recorded for its candidate were reduced during the collation process.
The party further claimed that more than 100 polling units were affected by failure to follow electoral rules.
It also pointed to eight polling units where officials allegedly changed figures by erasing and rewriting results on official documents.
Another issue raised in the petition involved voter accreditation. The petitioners said that in 71 polling units across six wards, officials failed to properly mark voters’ details in the register as required, yet the votes from those units were still counted.
They also identified cases of over-voting in 31 polling units, where the number of votes recorded was higher than the number of accredited voters. Based on this, they argued that thousands of votes recorded for both parties in those areas should be cancelled.
After removing the disputed figures, the APC calculated that it would have 16,499 valid votes, while the PDP candidate would have 18,929 votes, leaving a difference of 2,430 votes.
The petition added that the gap between both candidates is smaller than the number of registered voters in the affected polling units. Based on this, the party argued that the result should not stand and called for the cancellation of the election outcome.
The APC and its candidate have asked the tribunal to void the result declared by the electoral body and determine who actually won the election in line with the law.
