The Minister of the Nigerian Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has described the FCT area councils’ election as “peaceful” and commended electorates for the peaceful conduct.
The Minister gave the commendation after monitoring the election in Garki, Karu Chief’s Palace, Karshi, Kabusa and Keti.
Wike noted the problem of voter apathy, particularly at the city centre, saying however, that voters’ turnout in satellite towns was quite impressive.
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He said: “We thank God that everywhere it’s peaceful.
“The problem we have is low voter turnout, particularly in the cities and that has always been the case, but going right to some of the satellite towns like this polling unit in Keti, you can see that the turnout is quite impressive.
“The low turnout of voters is very unfortunate. What is important is that the election is peaceful, no violence, no snatching of ballots or the ballot boxes.”
The Minister commended security agencies for ensuring a hitch free exercise.
“They have done their job very well. We used to have pockets of violence here and there, but in this case, we have not heard any case of reported violence in the polling units,” the FCT Minister said.
On the conduct of the election, the Minister commended the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC for a job well done.
Responding to Senator Ireti Kingibe’s comments on national television, condemning the restriction of movement from Friday evening to Saturday evening, the Minister described the comments as very “unfortunate.”
Ireti, representing FCT at the Senate had on Friday, condemned Wike for what she described as “unlawful imposition of curfew” from 8: p.m. Friday to 6:00 p.m. Saturday.
The Minister clarified that he had not imposed a curfew but restricted movement with the approval of President Bola Tinubu, to ensure a hitch-free election.
“I thought as a senator that she should be able to read. I never imposed curfew. If you heard my statement, I said, with the approval of Mr. President, movements would be restricted from 8: p.m Friday to 6:p.m today and this is not the first time,” Wike said.
He urged residents to remain peaceful during the collation of results just the way they were peaceful during voting.