{"id":27821,"date":"2026-02-20T12:47:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T11:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/?p=27821"},"modified":"2026-02-21T12:34:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T11:34:27","slug":"live-fact-checks-fct-area-council-election-friday-february-20-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/live-fact-checks-fct-area-council-election-friday-february-20-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"LIVE FACT-CHECKS: FCT area council election- FRIDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) will on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, head to the polls to elect local government chairmen and councillors for the six Local Government Areas (LGAs). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said elections will be held at all polling units i<\/a>n the FCT. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

DUBAWA would provide accurate verdicts and contexts to assertions and claims made around the election to insulate the general public from mis- and disinformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claim 1 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CLAIM: A viral WhatsApp message claims Wike announced total movement restriction across the FCT from 8 pm on Friday, ahead of the area council election.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FINDINGS<\/strong>: The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) police on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, announced<\/a> that a curfew will be in effect from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM on election day (Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026). However, in the early hours of Friday, a message went viral on WhatsApp claiming that the curfew would begin at 8:00 PM that night. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We discovered that the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, while declaring Friday a public holiday for workers, announced a longer curfew<\/a> commencing from 8:00 PM on Friday. So while the police declared a  12-hour curfew (6:00 AM to 6:00 PM) on Saturday, Wike also announced another curfew, commencing at 8:00 PM on Friday, Feb. 20, 2026, lasting until 6:00 PM on Saturday, Feb.  21, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

VERDICT: TRUE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

SOURCES:<\/strong> FCT Police<\/a>, The Nation<\/a> & Sahara Reporters<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claim 2<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CLAIM: An X user, @shodekegbenga<\/a>, (archived here<\/a>), shared an image of Peter Obi in PDP attire, claiming<\/a> he is handing out N10,000 to buy votes in the upcoming FCT election.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FINDINGS<\/strong>: DUBAWA conducted a Reverse Image Search and found that the image has been online <\/a>since 2020. Peter Obi, who in the image wore a People\u2019s Democratic Party (PDP) attire, left<\/a> the party in 2022. He has since joined the Labour Party<\/a> and recently, the African Democratic Congress<\/a> (ADC).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also conducted a keyword search but did not find any news reports, pictures, or videos to corroborate the claim. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

VERDICT: \u00a0FALSE<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SOURCES:<\/strong>  BBC<\/a>, Premium Times<\/a>, Daily Post<\/a> & TVC<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

DATE:<\/strong> 20\/02\/2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claim 3<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CLAIM:\u00a0 An X user claims<\/a> (archived here<\/a>) INEC is breaking a new law that permits voting with a printed voter slip instead of a PVC.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FINDINGS<\/strong>: Although an alternative voter identification was previously proposed<\/a> in the draft of the new 2026 Electoral Act Amendment, lawmakers rejected this suggestion during a clause-by-clause consideration<\/a> of Clause 47 of the Act. They maintained that only the Permanent Voter Card (PVC) can be used by voters.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

VERDICT: False.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

SOURCES:<\/strong>  The Cable & Premium Times<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) will on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, head to the polls to elect local government chairmen and councillors for the six Local Government Areas (LGAs).  According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said elections will be held at all polling units in the FCT.  DUBAWA would provide accurate verdicts and contexts to assertions and claims made around the election to insulate the general public from mis- and disinformation. Claim 1  CLAIM: A viral WhatsApp message claims Wike announced total movement restriction across the FCT from 8 pm on Friday, ahead of the area council election. FINDINGS: The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) police on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, announced that a curfew will be in effect from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM on election day (Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026). However, in the early hours of Friday, a message went viral on WhatsApp claiming that the curfew would begin at 8:00 PM that night.  We discovered that the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, while declaring Friday a public holiday for workers, announced a longer curfew commencing from 8:00 PM on Friday. So while the police declared a  12-hour curfew (6:00 AM to 6:00 PM) on Saturday, Wike also announced another curfew, commencing at 8:00 PM on Friday, Feb. 20, 2026, lasting until 6:00 PM on Saturday, Feb.  21, 2026. VERDICT: TRUE SOURCES: FCT Police, The Nation & Sahara Reporters. Claim 2 CLAIM: An X user, @shodekegbenga, (archived here), shared an image of Peter Obi in PDP attire, claiming he is handing out N10,000 to buy votes in the upcoming FCT election. FINDINGS: DUBAWA conducted a Reverse Image Search and found that the image has been online since 2020. Peter Obi, who in the image wore a People\u2019s Democratic Party (PDP) attire, left the party in 2022. He has since joined the Labour Party and recently, the African Democratic Congress (ADC).\u00a0 We also conducted a keyword search but did not find any news reports, pictures, or videos to corroborate the claim.  VERDICT: \u00a0FALSE SOURCES:  BBC, Premium Times, Daily Post & TVC DATE: 20\/02\/2026. Claim 3 CLAIM:\u00a0 An X user claims (archived here) INEC is breaking a new law that permits voting with a printed voter slip instead of a PVC. FINDINGS: Although an alternative voter identification was previously proposed in the draft of the new 2026 Electoral Act Amendment, lawmakers rejected this suggestion during a clause-by-clause consideration of Clause 47 of the Act. They maintained that only the Permanent Voter Card (PVC) can be used by voters. VERDICT: False. SOURCES:  The Cable & Premium Times<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":27860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"hannibal_claim_source":"","hannibal_source_label":"","hannibal_card_color":"blue","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"default","_google_business_share_type":"default","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[1571,5,3812,3815],"tags":[],"verdict":[],"ppma_author":[873],"class_list":["post-27821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fact-check","category-elections","category-headline","category-homepage"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R6dE-7eJ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":873,"user_id":10,"is_guest":0,"slug":"dubawa","display_name":"Dubawa","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f70a877f6d81734de0ca299eabb33d20687f41f5a4cb83ae8d754fc9412ee293?s=96&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":"Strengthening Investigative Journalism for the fight against corruption in Nigeria."}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Black-and-White-Blog-Banner-1-scaled.png?fit=2560%2C1440&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27821"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27836,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27821\/revisions\/27836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27821"},{"taxonomy":"verdict","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verdict?post=27821"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=27821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}