Seven Govs who lost senatorial contests

THE NATION

No fewer than seven Governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) have lost their bids for the senate after Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections.

Here are seven Governors who lost senatorial bids:

Governor Ben Ayade lost his bid to return to the Senate following his defeat by the incumbent senator representing Cross River North, Jarigbe Agom-Jarigbe.

Ayade, who is serving out his two-term as Governor, sought to replace Agom-Jarigbe as the Senator.

Ayade, who was in the Senate between 2011 and 2015, lost with 56,595 votes against Agom-Jarigbe of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 76,145 votes.

The returning officer, 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.

* Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (PDP)

Enugu Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi lost his senatorial bid to the Labour Party (LP) candidate for the district, Okechukwu Ezea.

Ugwuanyi, who is rounding off his second term as Governor,  was the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for the Enugu North.

Ezea, the LP candidate, polled a total of 104,492 votes to defeat Mr Ugwuanyi of the PDP, who came second with 46,948 votes.

Professor Chukwuemeka Ubaka, who announced the result at the collation center, said Mr Ezea was declared the winner in the exercise because he “justified all the requirements of the law” having scored the highest number of votes in the election.

*Samuel Ortom (PDP)

Benue Governor Samuel Ortom lost his election bid for Benue North West.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senatorial candidate lost to his All Progressives Congress (APC) counterpart in the district, Titus Zam.

The APC candidate polled 143,151 while the PDP scored 106,882 and the Labour Party 51,950.

Zam was an appointee of Ortom in his first tenure from 2015 to 2019, where he served as the Special Adviser to the governor on local government and chieftaincy affairs before he resigned from the Ortom administration on loyalty grounds.

*Simon Lalong (APC)

Plateau Governor Simon Lalong, who is also the Director General of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), lost the bid to clinch the Plateau South Senatorial District slot.

He lost to Rtd AVM Bali Ninkap Napoleon of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

While announcing the results, the Returning Officer Professor Meshak Goyit declared that Bali Napoleon of PDP scored a total of 148,844 votes to defeat Governor Lalong of APC with 91,674 votes while Tobias Nda of the Labour Party scored 17,325 votes.