By Ade Iyamoye<\/p>\n
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has declared Friday, February 20, 2026, a work free day and announced restriction of movement across the FCT from 8pm on Friday to 6pm on Saturday ahead of the Area Council elections scheduled for Saturday, February 21.<\/p>\n
Wike made the announcement in a special broadcast on national television and radio stations on Thursday, urging residents to turn out in large numbers to vote for candidates of their choice.<\/p>\n
According to the minister, the directives were approved by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to enable residents travel to their communities and participate fully in the elections.<\/p>\n
He directed all security agencies to ensure strict compliance with the movement restriction order.<\/p>\n
Describing the polls as a crucial opportunity to shape the future of the FCT, Wike urged residents to conduct themselves in an orderly and lawful manner and to respect the outcome of the election.<\/p>\n
The minister also commended President Tinubu for signing the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2026 into law, saying it reflects the administration\u2019s commitment to strengthening democratic institutions and ensuring free, fair and transparent elections.<\/p>\n
He expressed hope that the elections would produce quality leaders capable of promoting development, peace and prosperity in the FCT.<\/p>\n
The FCT Area Council elections will see the emergence of chairmen and councillors across the six area councils.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Ade Iyamoye The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has declared Friday, February 20, 2026, a work free day and announced restriction of movement across the FCT from 8pm on Friday to 6pm on Saturday ahead of the Area Council elections scheduled for Saturday, February 21. Wike made the announcement in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":82395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177,1724,172,186],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-82849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abuja-reports","category-insecurity","category-news","category-politics","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82849"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82850,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82849\/revisions\/82850"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}