Abbey Ukpukpen of PDP wins Obudu State House of Assembly seat
By Benson Ezugwu/Obudu
Mrs Abbey Ukpukpen, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has won Saturday’s Obudu State Constituency Bye Election into the Cross River House of Assembly.
The candidate, a staff of the University of Calabar, is the widow of the member of the Assembly, Stephen Ukpukpen, who died in May.
His seat was declared vacant following his death.
The State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Dr Frankland Briyai, announced the result on Sunday in Obudu, Headquarters of Obudu Local Government.
According to Briyai, the PDP Candidate scored 12,712 votes to beat her closest rival, Mr Ishamali Bendel, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who scored 4,345 votes.
Other results include: Awafang Angiating of Mega Party of Nigeria (MPN), who scored 132 votes and Agwupuye Umeka of African Democratic Party (ADP), who scored 114 votes to place third and fourth, respectively.
“Total valid votes 17,303; rejected votes 607; total votes cast 17,910; total number of registered voters 69,908, ‘’ he said.
The REC commended the Electorate for the peaceful conduct of the exercise and urged them to replicate the same disposition in the 2019 general elections.
Therefore, Mrs Abbey Ukpukpen will now replace her late husband in the assembly.
Reacting to the victory, Governor Ayade said: “The election was more of a referendum on my acceptability and my stewardship to my people. There couldn’t be any more resounding affirmation than this from my people.
“Basically it is more or less like a referendum because my state house member representing Obudu State Constituency in the Cross River House of Assembly died suddenly and so, the bye election held yesterday. So, it is a validation of my own service.”
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