Our agents were compromised in FCT poll — ADC insider

2026-02-23 - 16:37

By Luminous Jannamike ABUJA — The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has admitted that some of its polling unit agents were compromised during Saturday’s Federal Capital Territory Area Council elections, a development the party says contributed to its poor showing. The disclosure came in an interview with Vanguard on Monday in Abuja. A senior party chieftain, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was reacting to claims by members of the All Progressives Congress and some voters that the opposition party lacked adequate agent coverage in several polling units. “Well, the truth is that there are some cases, because we also got that report from people on the ground, where there was a total absence of polling unit agents. “When we investigated further, what we found was that some of the agents were actually compromised and allegedly bought over by the APC, which is still part of the monetary inducement in elections we are trying to discourage. “That may not be far from the truth, because I am aware that at some polling units, there were financial inducements that led some agents to leave the polling units completely,” the source added. Official results showed the APC swept five of the six area councils. AMAC, Bwari, Kwali, Abaji and Kuje, leaving the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with only Gwagwalada. The ADC fielded candidates across the councils but failed to secure any chairmanship or councillorship seat and polled weakly in most areas, coming a distant second in AMAC with about 12,000 votes. The insider also linked the party’s weak outing to the ongoing travails of two of its prominent figures, Nasir El-Rufai and Abubakar Malami, describing both men as key pillars whose legal and political battles affected party morale. “In as much as El-Rufai and Abubakar Malami are leaders and very strong pillars in the party, there are tendencies that the travails of these two frontline leaders would have dealt a serious blow to our outcome in the election,” the source said. Beyond internal setbacks, the ADC NEC member pointed to widespread voter apathy, blaming public distrust in the electoral process supervised by the Independent National Electoral Commission. “However, I would also say there was general voter apathy towards our party, based on the perception that people do not believe in the transparency and accountability of INEC to deliver the will of the masses,” the chieftain noted. INEC conducted chairmanship and councillorship elections across the six area councils of the FCT on Saturday. The APC recorded a dominant showing, while the ADC failed to win any chairmanship seat. Efforts to speak with Bolaji Abdullahi, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, proved futile as calls and messages sent to his phone were unanswered as of press time.