Governor Ayade Loses Cross River North Senatorial Bid To Incumbent Senator Jarigbe

In what was a keenly contested election, the incumbent senator representing Cross River North Senatorial District, Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe, has defeated incumbent Governor, Ben Ayade, in the senatorial election held in the zone on Saturday.

Jarigbe of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, defeated Ayade of the All Progressives Congress, APC, with a margin of 19,550 votes.

The PDP candidate polled 76,145 votes to the APC’s 56,595 votes.

According to the election result declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission in Ogoja, the headquarters of the district early morning of Monday, APC won only one local government which is where the candidate comes from.

Ayade won his local government, Obudu, polling 12,788 while Jarigbe scored 11,973 votes.

Jarigbe won Obanliku LGA polling 10,933 votes to Ayade’s 7,096 votes

Jarigbe also won his local government, Ogoja, polling 19,287 votes to Ayade’s 10,388 votes.

In Bekwarra LGA, APC polled 6,786 votes while PDP scored 13,357 votes.

The PDP also won the biggest local government, Yala, scoring 20,595 votes while APC scored 19,537.

Ayade was a senator representing the zone in 2011 and won election in 2015 as Governor.

He won his reelection in 2019 all on the platform of the PDP before defecting to the APC where he got the ticket of the party from an eventual winner having failed to clinch the presidential ticket of the APC during the primary election.

Jarigbe won the battle for the Senate after the court declared him winner of the by-election in 2021 before his latest victory.