Ayade, 3 of G-5 governors’ senatorial ambitions crash

Ahead of the 2023 general election, Governors Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia, Samuel Ortom of Benue and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu, won senatorial tickets of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in their respective states.

In addition to these three of the G-5 governors at loggerheads with the national leadership of their party, is Ben Ayade, the governor of Cross Rivers State who won the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket to represent the Cross River North senatorial constituency.

But results of the recently concluded National Assembly election showed the governors failed to secure enough votes to realise their senatorial ambition.

Ortom, who contested for Benue North-West had predicted his loss. Before the election, Ortom said, “…if I’m to sacrifice my senatorial ambition for Peter Obi to win, so shall it be,” Ortom said. “Obi’s matter is not about APC or PDP or SDP or any other party. It’s about Nigeria.”

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According to Rufus Shaato, the returning officer for Benue North-West senatorial election, who announced the results on Monday at the INEC local government collation centre in Makurdi, Ortom lost his senatorial bid with a margin of 36,269 votes to Titus Zam, an APC candidate. He polled 106,882 votes, while Zam raked in 143,151 votes.

Ayade had represented the Cross River North senatorial constituency from 2011 to 2015 before becoming the governor.

He contested to re-represent Cross River North while rounding off his second term as the governor but 19,550 votes thwarted this political move.

In the result announced by Emmanuel Emanghe, the returning officer for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Monday, Ayade’s politics took a nose dive. He polled 56,595 votes against Agom-Jarigbe of the PDP, who garnered 76,145 votes.

Similar to the case of Ayade is Ugwuanyi, the governor of Enugu State. He was a member of the House of Representatives before being elected governor in 2015.

Ugwuanyi, who sought to represent Enugu North in the Senate, lost to Okechukwu Ezea of the Labour Party (LP).

While Ezea scored 104,948 votes to emerge the winner, Ugwuanyi garnered 46,948 votes to emerge second.

In Abia State, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu and the PDP flag bearer for Abia South senatorial district was denied his ambition by Abia voters.