FIC REPORT (BENUE STATE) – The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Benue State says preparations for the 2027 General Election are progressing well. Resident Electoral Commissioner Aminu K. Idris gave the update at a stakeholders’ meeting held on Wednesday at the INEC State Collation Centre.
Idris told political party leaders, civil society organisations and the media that the Presidential and National Assembly elections will hold on Saturday, January 16, 2027. The Governorship and State Assembly elections will follow on Saturday, February 6, 2027. He urged all stakeholders to help ensure a peaceful environment for a free, fair, credible and inclusive election.
Electoral data: Benue has 23 local government areas, 37 state constituencies, 11 federal constituencies and three senatorial districts. It also has 276 registration areas, 5,102 polling units and 3,057,225 registered voters.
Candidates: The state has 592 candidates contesting 52 elective positions, excluding the presidential race.
They break down as follows:
Governor: 12
Senate: 40 (Benue North-East 12, North-West 13, South 15)
House of Representatives: 118 across 11 constituencies
State House of Assembly: 422 across 37 constituencies
Nationally, 18 of the 22 registered parties fielded presidential candidates.
INEC published the final candidate lists on September 12 (Presidential and National Assembly) and October 10 (Governorship and State Assembly), in line with Section 32(1) of the Electoral Act, 2026. Parties were reminded to begin training and deploying polling agents for polling units and collation centres.
Restored constituencies: The number of State Assembly constituencies in Benue rose from 32 to 37 after court judgments restored five. These are Ukum II (Afia), Konshisha (Shange-Tiev), Gboko III (Central), Makurdi III (South East) and Nyamatsor in Buruku. Court judgments restored 27 constituencies across Benue, Delta, Jigawa and Kogi.
Readiness: INEC has begun delivering non-sensitive materials to state and area council offices. Of 5,381 BVAS devices physically verified in Benue, 5,277 (98%) are functional and ready for deployment. Headquarters has been notified about the faulty devices and is working to ensure the state has enough functional units.
Voter register and PVCs: Display of the voter register for claims and objections ran from October 9 to 15 across all 23 area councils. INEC received 1,052 submissions, comprising 947 claims and 105 objections. During the period, 58,581 Permanent Voter Cards were collected:
New CVR cards: 28,854
Transferred cards: 12,707
Old cards in storage: 9,139
Replacement cards: 7,881
The state office had received 101,695 Phase One CVR and transfer PVCs from headquarters by early October, made up of 54,724 new cards and 46,971 transfers. Headquarters will announce when PVCs processed in CVR Phases Two and Three become available.
Observers: Idris reminded civil society groups that the portal for observer accreditation closed on October 26. He urged them to train field observers on their duties and limitations, and to work with their headquarters to secure ID cards and tags before election days.
The commissioner reacted to the concern of the stakeholders in the issue of internally Displaced persons IDPs. He said concert efforts are put in place to ensure that the IDPs are not disenfranchised.
In a closing remark the head of Administration Mr.Shikfu Sim Bewaran appreciated stakeholders for taking out time to attend the engagement meeting. He assured of the commission readiness to deliver a credible, free and fair election in Benue state.
VERONICA AZEMBA
For Head of Center FIC Makurdi
