The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Cross River State, Prince Bassey Edet Otu, has been declared winner of the March 18 governorship election in the state.

The state Returning Officer for INEC, Prof. Teddy Charles of the Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa State, who made the announcement on Monday afternoon at the INEC headquarters in Calabar, said the APC candidate polled 258,619 votes to emerge winner of the election.

He said Otu’s closest rival and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Sandy Onor, polled 179,636 votes.

He said the votes recorded by other parties that sponsored candidates and participated in the governorship election are as follows: AA: 405; ADC: 1620; ADP: 902; APP: 340; LP : 5, 957; NRM: 441; PRP: 3,052; SDP: 628; YPP: 333.

The returning officer said the number of registered voters in the state stood at 1,766, 466; and total number of accredited voters was 466,294.

He said the total valid votes cast was 451, 933, and the number of rejected votes was 8923.

The returning officer said the total votes cast in the election was 460,856.

Prof. Charles said the total number of cancelled votes was 44,486, and therefore, less than 78,983, which is the margin of votes between the highest votes cast and the second highest number of votes cast.

The returning officer, therefore, declared Otu Bassey Edet of the APC as the winner of the election and governor-elect having satisfied the constitutional and other legal requirements to be so declared.(THISDAY)