Ochicha, Ayade and Ugbo APC's gubernatorial candidate in the last Saturday election in Cross River, Mr. Odey Ochicha, has conceded defeat as he has congratulated PDP's candidate Prof. Ben Ayade who emerged the winner. "This morning, I called on my opponent, the PDP gubernatorial candidate and the winner of last Saturday governorship election in the state, Prof. Ben Ayade to congratulate him on his victory," Ochicha said in a telephone conversation in Calabar yesterday. "I praise him for standing the fight to the end and winning the election. I advise that you be magimous in victory by carrying everybody along in your administration. Besides, I enjoin you to live up to the yearnings and aspirations of the people of the state." The Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate Senator Benedict Ayade, won in the April 11, Governorship Elections scoring a total of 342,016 votes to defeat his main opponent, Odey Ochicha of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who polled 53,983 votes. The returning officer in the state, Prof Comfort Ekpo, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Uyo, declared Ayade winner after scoring above 25 percent in the 18 Local Government Areas of the State. As stated by the returning officer, there were 109,6781 registered voters, only 466,318 votes were cast in the five political parties that contested the governorship elections, nd the total number of results cancelled in some LGAs were 93,100 following some irregularities that was reported by the INEC officials in those affected polling units. "The APC scored 53,983, LP 36,918, ID 514, NNPP 982 and PDP 342,016, the candidate for PDP having all the majority votes cast and he has also scored above 25 percent in all the 18 LGAs. I, Prof Comfort Ekpo, hereby certify that as the returning officer of April 11, 2015 elections, Benedict Ayade having certified the law and scored the highest number of votes is declared the winner," she stated.
