Photo: Gov. Ayade, right, with his nemesis, incumbent C/River North Sen Jarigbe.
Gov. Ben Ayade has lost his bid for the Senate following his defeat by the incumbent senator representing Cross River North, Sen. Jarigbe Agom-Jarigbe.
Ayade, who was elected twice on the platform of PDP but later defected to APC on whose platform he contested, lost the National Assembly elections conducted on Saturday with 56,595 votes against Agom-Jarigbe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 76,145 votes.
Ayade was in the Senate between 2011 and 2015.
The returning officer, Dr Emmanuel Emanghe, who spoke on behalf of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced the result for the polls around 3:05 a.m. on Monday.
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 Dr Rose Okoh.
Simirlarly, Ayade who is serving out his second term as Governor of the state, sought to replace Agom-Jarigbe as the Cross River North Senator.
Meanwhile, Mr Godwin Offiono of the PDP, was returned elected for the Ogoji/Yala Federal Constituency.
Offiono defeated the incumbent lawmaker representing the area, Mr Jude Ngaji of the All Progressives Congress, by 36,651 votes to 32,973 votes.
The Ogoja/Yala Federal constituency result was announced by Dr Wakasor Ofem.
