Senate race: Enugu governor loses to LP candidate as PDP senator defeats Ayade

Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, governor of Enugu state, has lost his bid to represent Enugu north district in the senate.

The governor was defeated by Okechukwu Ezea, the Labour Party (LP) candidate for the district.

Ugwuanyi, a two-term governor, is the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for the election.

Announcing the result in the early hours of Monday, Chukwuemeka Ubaka, the returning officer, said the LP candidate polled 104,492 votes to defeat Ugwuanyi who had 46,948 votes.

Ejike Eze, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), secured 6,816 votes.

Similarly, Ben Ayade, Cross River governor, was defeated by incumbent senator Jarigbe Agom-Jarigbe in the race for Cross River north senatorial district.

Ayade secured 56,595 votes while Agom-Jarigbe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) scored 76,145 votes.

Emmanuel Emanghe, the returning officer, announced the result of the polls around 3:05 am on Monday.

Agom-Jarigbe was a two-time member of the house of representatives before he was elected into the senate through a bye-election in September 2021 following the death of Rose Okoh.

Ayade, who is serving out his two terms as governor of the state, was in the senate between 2011 and 2015.