Cross River State governor loses Senate bid

CROSS River State governor, Ben Ayade, has lost his bid to return to the Senate following his defeat by the incumbent senator representing Cross River North, Jarigbe Agom-Jarigbe.

Agom-Jarigbe won the National Assembly election held on Saturday with 76,145 votes. Ayade got 56,595 votes.

The Returning Officer, Emmanuel Emanghe, announced the results on Monday, February 27.

Agom-Jarigbe, a two-time member of the House of Representatives, was elected into the Senate through a bye-election in September 2021 following the death of the former senator Rose Okoh.

Ayade, who served in the Senate between 2011 and 2015, sought to replace Agom-Jarigbe as the Senator representing Cross River North.

However, there was an issue with the declaration form, which prevented Agom-Jarigbe from being officially declared as the winner. Upon demand for the declaration form, he was told that it was mistakenly taken to Obudu by the electoral body in the state.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Gabriel Yomere, confirmed that the form was mistakenly taken to Obudu but that Agom-Jarigbe could be issued a temporary declaration form pending the arrival of the original one.

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In the Ogoji/Yala Federal Constituency election, Godwin Offiono of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) defeated the incumbent lawmaker representing the area, Jude Ngaji of the All Progressives Congress (APC), by scoring 36,651 votes. Wakasor Ofem announced the result.

The PDP retained its hold on Cross River State, which has historically been a stronghold for the party.

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