In Cross River, PDP picks up only three of eleven NASS seats

Ahead of the 2023 Elections, eleven federal legislative seats were up for grabs in Cross River State; South South Nigeria. This piece spotlights the winners of the February 25 Polls and their parties as have been announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)

In the build-up to the 2023 National Assembly Elections, Cross River State was definitely one of the major states in the South-South geo-political zone to watch.

Having been a Peoples’ Democratic Party-dominated state since 1999, the switch of the incumbent governor, Ben Ayade, in 2020 to the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) alongside a couple of state lawmakers and at least one federal lawmaker threw up a dozen questions as to what party now holds sway in the state.

With the results released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Governor Ayade-led All Progressives Congress (APC) swept majority of the seats, as the PDP, which hitherto had ten of the eleven National Assembly seats, fell behind the APC. The PDP managed to pick up just one Senatorial seat and two House of Representatives seats. Interestingly, the biggest knockout from the state was the loss of the state governor to the incumbent Senator (Cross River North), a PDP member.

Due to their quest for the governorship seat, the other two incumbent Senators did not seek re-election into the Red Chamber, while only two incumbent Members of the House of Representatives got the nod of the electorate to return to the Green Chamber. With the results all complete, here are the successful National Assembly candidates in Cross River State as declared by INEC:

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