Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade, has lost his bid to go to the Senate following his defeat in Saturday’s National Assembly election.
It has been reported that the All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain was defeated by the incumbent senator representing Cross River Northern Senatorial District of the state, Jarigbe Agom-Jarigbe.
Senator Jarigbe who contested on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) garnered 76,145 to defeat Ben Ayade who polled 56, 595 votes in the exercise.
Declaring Sen. Jarigbe winner of the exercise in the early hours of Monday, the returning officer, Dr. Emmanuel Emanghe who spoke on behalf of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC thanked stakeholders for their peaceful conduct
Emanghe also lauded all security agents for giving the needed security support which invariably led to successful and credible elections.
Ben Ayade Faults Late Arrival Of Materials
In other news, Ben Ayade faulted the late arrival of voting materials in some areas of the State.
This is as he expressed displeasure that his people were at risk of being disenfranchised due to the delayed arrival of materials for Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections.
News360 Info reports that the governor, who voted at about 2.08.pm, at Polling Unit 033, Ipong Ward said he was surprised to cast his vote at that time as materials arrived at his polling unit at about 1 pm.
Ayade, who spoke after casting his vote noted that “Well I am surprised that I have just cast my vote at about 2:08.pm. We didn’t have materials until 1:pm and when the materials did arrive, there were no INEC staff available to attend to voters.”
“I hope INEC will allow every single person who has come here to vote to do so without being institutionally disenfranchised.”
