The Nasarawa North Senatorial District by-election held on Saturday, 20th June 2026 elicited contrasting reactions from key political stakeholders, with Governor Abdullahi Sule commending the conduct of the exercise, while former Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, alleged irregularities and technical glitches in some polling units.
Governor Sule, who cast his vote at Polling Unit 002, Gudi Motor Park, alongside his wives, Hajiya Silifat Abdullahi Sule and Hajiya Farida Abdullahi Sule, described the election as one of the smoothest he had witnessed in recent years.
Speaking with journalists shortly after voting, the governor expressed satisfaction with the accreditation and voting process.
“For me, this is the smoothest it has ever been. From BVAS accreditation to casting my ballot, it took just three to five minutes. Historically, this is the fastest I’ve seen,” he stated.
Sule also dismissed suggestions that the by-election would serve as a measure of his political influence ahead of the 2027 general elections, insisting that the contest was more a test of the popularity and performance of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
“It is an opportunity for the people of Nasarawa North to say thank you to APC. By the grace of God, we are going to see a ‘thank you’ result,” he added.
In contrast, Maku, who voted in his Wakama Ward polling unit, raised concerns over what he described as widespread failures of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, in parts of the senatorial district.
While acknowledging that his own accreditation process was seamless, the former minister claimed that many voters experienced difficulties and were left waiting for hours due to malfunctioning devices.
“Quite a number of people, the BVAS could not capture their fingerprints and they have been waiting there since morning,” Maku alleged.
He called on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to deploy facial recognition technology in situations where fingerprint verification fails, arguing that voters’ photographs are already contained in the electoral register.
The former minister further claimed that similar technical challenges were reported in several polling centres, including Wamba Central and Wamba Clinic, where officials allegedly struggled to repair faulty accreditation machines.
Maku also alleged that some BVAS devices exhausted their internet data allocation after processing only a few voters.
“At my polling unit, we had to volunteer data to INEC officials to enable them continue the accreditation process,” he said.
Beyond the technical concerns, Maku alleged reports of multiple thumbprinting of ballot papers in some communities, including Alushi and Wacho, though no official confirmation had been issued by electoral authorities as of the time of filing this report.
Despite his concerns, the former minister noted that voting remained largely peaceful across many polling units but cautioned that tensions often arise during the collation phase.
“It is when results are being collated that people introduce violence when they see they are not winning,” he warned, urging security agencies to provide adequate protection during the movement and collation of election results.
Maku also criticized what he described as a growing culture of “win-at-all-costs” politics, maintaining that elected governments should rely on their performance and development records rather than political manipulation to secure victory.
According to him, public confidence in the electoral process would improve if election disputes were determined based on the substance of complaints rather than technical legal considerations.
The by-election was conducted to fill the vacant Nasarawa North Senatorial seat following the death of Godiya Akwashiki.
As of press time, the Independent National Electoral Commission had not issued an official response to the allegations of BVAS malfunction or other reported irregularities, while collation of results was ongoing.
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