Claim: An X user , @Pharmacio001 shared a post, that the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Gwagwalada Area Council (FCT) had withdrawn from the FCT Area Council elections.

Verdict: False

Full Story

The 2026 Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council elections were scheduled for Saturday, February 21, 2026. Voters across the six area councils — Abaji, Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kuje, and Kwali — were expected to elect six chairmen and 62 councillors across 68 constituencies.

Ahead of the polls, political parties intensified campaigns following the clearance of 17 parties by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to contest 68 elective positions. INEC projected that over 1.6 million registered voters across 2,822 polling units would participate in the elections.

Meanwhile, reports emerged prior to the elections indicating that some PDP chairmanship candidates had stepped down, while the Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike, publicly endorsed pro-Tinubu candidates.

As polling units began opening on election morning, a social media post by @Pharmacio001 gained traction, alleging that both the PDP and APC candidates for Gwagwalada Area Council had withdrawn from the race. The post generated significant engagement and sparked mixed reactions.

See the screenshot of the post below:

While the claim has gained traction with 241k views, 829k likes, and 90 reposts, some users expressed scepticism and called for verification, while others accepted the claim without independent confirmation.

@madejibo was not convinced, saying please investigate this report by this handler. If false, kindly make sure the handler faces the law, as the letter might have been forged.

@LsholaSodiq believed that the withdrawal was better than to suffer defeat, saying, “Why will they go into the election seeing the ‘handwritten’ (sic) of defeat clearly written boldly on the wall..

@peter101813 said, “This handler should be arrested and jailed if the above information is not true.

Is this claim true? NDRFactcheck decided to verify.

Verification

A review of credible media reports and publicly available information showed no evidence supporting the claim.

Before election day:

• The Punch reported the withdrawal of the PDP chairmanship candidate for Bwari Area Council, Julius Adamu, who stepped down in support of the APC candidate, Joshua Musa.
• Nigerian Democratic Report also documented this development.

Similarly:

• Channels Television reported that the PDP chairmanship candidate for AMAC, Zadna Dantani, withdrew and declared support for the APC candidate.

However, no credible news platform reported any withdrawal involving candidates in the Gwagwalada Area Council on election day.

Further examination of the purported withdrawal letters circulating online revealed clear inconsistencies. The documents attributed to both parties shared identical formatting features — including fonts, language patterns, and structural layout — raising serious doubts about their authenticity.

Additionally, a check of INEC’s official communication channels and news portal showed no announcement confirming any such withdrawals in Gwagwalada.

Conclusion

While verified withdrawals involving PDP candidates were reported in Bwari and AMAC before the elections, there is no credible evidence that PDP or APC candidates withdrew from the Gwagwalada Area Council contest on election morning.

Verdict: The claim is false.

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