Political tension is deepening in Kuje Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) after the Chief Protocol Officer to the council chairman, Stephen Tumaka, warned residents who may refuse to vote for candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2027 general elections that they should not consider Kuje their home.
Tumaka issued the controversial warning in a social media post on Tuesday, the same day remarks attributed to Kuje Area Council Chairman, Samuel Danjuma Shekwolo, resurfaced in which he allegedly told residents to either support the APC or leave the area council.
In his post, Tumaka declared that Kuje belonged to the APC and specifically named President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Senator Philip Aduda and Hon. Danladi Chiya, popularly known as Bayani, as candidates residents should support during the election.
He wrote: “LISTEN WELL. Kuje is APC. If you are not ready to vote ASIWAJU TINUBU, SENATOR ADUDA, and HON. BAYANI on election day comes January, then this Area Council is not for you. Don’t mistake this for a joke. January is around the corner.”
The statement has triggered fresh concerns about alleged political intimidation in Kuje, particularly because it came from a senior aide attached to the office of the area council chairman.
Tumaka’s statement has also intensified scrutiny of Shekwolo’s earlier comments, which had already generated controversy over the rights of residents to freely choose their political candidates without threats, pressure or coercion.
In a video that sparked the earlier controversy, Shekwolo was heard openly declaring: “It’s either you’re doing APC or leave the Area Council. I am not hiding it at all at all. With confidence, I am saying it.”
The chairman went further to justify his position by pointing to what he described as support Kuje Area Council was receiving from the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and President Tinubu.
He said: “You know why: I cannot have the minister and the President doing for us what they’re doing, and on the day of the election, you say you want to march/match me; I will not agree. It’s either you’re with us or you leave.”
The comments have raised questions over whether residents of Kuje are being pressured to support a particular political party as a condition for continued peaceful residence in the area council.
The controversy is particularly sensitive because the statements were attributed to officials associated with a local government authority, which is expected to provide public services and protection to residents irrespective of their political affiliations.
The development has also drawn the attention of Amnesty International, which previously condemned what it described as the failure of Nigerian authorities to take appropriate security action over Shekwolo’s remarks.
The human rights organisation warned that residents of Kuje could continue to live in fear if security agencies failed to hold the council chairman accountable for alleged threats against people who would not vote for the APC.
Amnesty International said: “Residents of Kuje area council FCT will continue to live in fear as no effort has been made by security agencies to hold the council chairman Samuel Danjuma Shekwolo to account, for threatening to unleash violence on anybody who would not vote for APC.”
The organisation further described the attempt to make APC support a condition for peaceful residence and the exercise of civic rights in Kuje as unlawful.
“His desperate attempt to make voting for APC as the sole condition for living peacefully and exercising civic rights in Kuje is unlawful,” Amnesty International said.
It also called on Nigerian authorities to ensure that politicians and other influential figures who engage in, incite or threaten politically motivated violence or human rights abuses are held accountable, irrespective of their political party or affiliation.
The organisation stressed that the protection of citizens’ rights should not depend on their political choices and that residents must be allowed to participate in elections freely and without intimidation.
The latest statement by Tumaka has therefore brought the Kuje controversy back into the spotlight, with concerns mounting over the political atmosphere in the area council ahead of the 2027 general elections.
With both the chairman and a senior aide now linked to statements demanding support for APC candidates, attention is increasingly turning to the response of security agencies, electoral authorities and other relevant institutions to allegations of political intimidation in Kuje.
The controversy also raises a broader question about whether residents can freely exercise their constitutional right to choose candidates of their choice when public officials appear to attach political conditions to continued residence and acceptance within an area council.