Meet Prince Bassey Otu, gov-elect of Cross River State

Bassey Edet Otu is a former Senator representing Cross-River South Senatorial district who has just been appointed as the governor-elect in the just concluded governorship election in the State.

Born on October 18, 1959 in Adiabio, Odukpani Local Government area of Cross River State. He spent most of his childhood between Calabar and Jos, Plateau State.

He graduated from the University of Calabar with a Bachelor’s degree from the faculty of Social Sciences. He had a career in the banking and petroleum sector before switching to politics.

Otu started his political career in 2003 when he was elected as the Member of the House of Representatives, representing Calabar Municipality/Odukpani Federal Constituency and was reelected in April 2007. Within this period (2003-2011), he was Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum (Upstream), Vice Chairman, House Committee on National Population and member of committees on Power, Ministry of Niger Delta, Inter-Parliamentary Relations, Inter-Intra Party Relations, Environment, Water Resources and Defense.

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The 64-year-old also served as Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream). In this role, he led work on a draft amendment bill that repositioned the Petroleum Technology Development Fund as a more effective vehicle to develop local content in the oil and gas industry.

In 2011, Otu was elected as Senator representing Cross River Southern Senatorial District. As a Senator, he was the Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance and later Chairman, Senate Committee on Banking and other financial Institutions; he was also a member, Committee on Navy, Power, Petroleum and Water Resources.
In 2018, Otu was appointed into the board of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) by President Muhamadu Buhari.
He is happily married to Eyoanwan Bassey Otu and the marriage is blessed with children.

Otu emerged as winner of the March 18, 2023 governorship election in Cross River with a total of 258,619 ahead of Sandy Ojang Onor of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) with 179,636.