The All Progressives Congress, APC, has won the Ogoja-Yala Federal Constituency by-election in Cross River State, south-south Nigeria.
The APC candidate, Mr Jude Ngaji, polled 22,778 votes to defeat PDP’s Mike Usibe, who scored 20,590 votes, while Ongro Ogbeche of APM came third with 135 votes.
Labour Party’s Ebi Esuo got 29 votes, Rapheal Okacha of APP, 75; Onyi Ugbochi, who was the candidate of PRP, scored 65, Ogidi Odey of the Social Democratic Party, SDP got 21, and Monkom Igbaji of the YPP had 50 votes.
45,877 voters were accredited out of 193,618 registered voters in the federal constituency, while the total votes cast was 45, 356 of which 43,828 were valid, and 1,528 votes amounted to rejected votes.
The Returning Officer for the Ogoja-Yala Federal Constituency by-election, Dr Paul Edor, declared Mr Ngaji the winner, saying “that Ngaji, Jude Ogbeche of APC having satisfied the requirement of the law is hereby declared the winner and is returning elected.”
Edor noted that the commission has lived up to its mandates and expectation by the Nigerian people and hoped improvements would be made before the 2023 general election.
PDP takes Akpabuyo constituency by-election
In the Akpabuyo State Constituency by-election, Ekeng Effiom Edet of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP won 7 out of 10 with 5,866 votes to defeat the APC candidate, Ekpo Effiom Bassey, who polled 5,363 votes, while the Labour Party candidate, Mr Ekon Eyo Etim scored 76 votes.
Mr Cassidy Agbor, the Returning Officer for the state constituency by-election, announced, “Edet Ekeng Effiom of the PDP having satisfied the requirement of the law is hereby declared the winner and is returning elected.”
Reactions
In a swift reaction, the Cross River State chairman of the APC, Mr Alphonsus Eba, said,
“I feel highly elated, and I give all thanks to God and members of our great party. I feel thrilled. This shows the mark of confidence, approval, and will of the people with the innovative technology of the BVAS machine, a system that cannot be manipulated.
“Today, the people of Ogoja and Yala have spoken. I won one, and I lost one. Yes, I won the most important of the two elections. An election that was decisive of the supremacy, of the control of our authority over the politics of Cross River State. All energies were put here, and that is why it came out that way,” he said.
He extended the hands of fellowship to members of the PDP and others yet to identify with the party.
Speaking at the end of the collation exercise in Ogoja, the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Cross River State, Dr Cyril Omorogbe, said concerning the by-elections and use of the BVAS machines for the first time, “it is a great experience that the exercise produced a winner amongst others. The BVAS that many people were not happy about performed very well.
“What I did in Calabar when the machines came was to make sure that people were trained in using those machines. We would train a lot to get to know how resilient those machines would be in Cross River State so that by February next year, we would be ready,” he said.
Meanwhile, supporters of the APC took to Ogoja town’s streets to celebrate the party’s victory at the just concluded Ogoja-Yala Federal Constituency by-election.
