The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has dismissed allegations that it carried out last-minute voter migration ahead of the recent Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council elections.
In a statement issued on Tuesday and signed by Adedayo Oketola, Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, the commission clarified that no voters were moved to new polling units in 2026.
INEC conducted chairmanship and councillorship elections in the FCT last Saturday, alongside by-elections for state constituency seats in Kano and Rivers states. While the exercise was described as successful, the commission acknowledged that some voters experienced difficulty locating their designated polling units on election day.
Addressing concerns raised in some quarters, INEC said the referenced “split polling units” were created in February 2022 under its Expansion of Voters’ Access to Polling Units initiative, not in 2026. The initiative saw the creation of more than 56,000 additional polling units nationwide, increasing the total from 119,972 to over 176,000.
To populate the newly established units, the commission in 2022 redistributed 6.7 million voters from about 12,000 congested polling units to approximately 17,000 less crowded ones across the country. In the FCT, 411 polling units were decongested, with about 580,000 voters reassigned to 1,156 polling units.
INEC emphasized that the splitting of polling units does not amount to fresh voter migration. According to the commission, split units involve deploying additional voting points and BVAS devices within the same premises—usually a few metres from the original unit—to ease accreditation and speed up voting in locations with more than 1,250 registered voters.
The commission further disclosed that during a mock election in the FCT, it observed that some voters migrated in 2022 were still uncertain about their polling locations. As a result, text messages and emails were sent between February 18 and 21, 2026, to affected voters as reminders of their designated voting points.
INEC urged voters to verify their polling details ahead of elections using its online Polling Unit Locator and encouraged physical visits to polling centres before election day where possible.
The commission reiterated its commitment to improving electoral service delivery and maintaining transparency in the management of Nigeria’s elections.
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