By Jonathan Ugbal
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The Senator representing Cross River central in the ninth National Assembly, Sandy Onor has emerged as the State’s gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP for the March 2023 general elections.
Senator Onor emerged after a keenly contested primary election held at the venetian arena in Calabar presided over by Mr. Babajide Coker.
His colleague, Sen. Gershom Bassey who represents Southern Cross River District came second after polling 175 votes while fellow Federal lawmaker representing Akamkpa/Biase federal constituency, Hon. Daniel Asuquo emerged as the second runner-up with 147 votes.
Academic entrepreneur, Sir Arthur Jarvis Archibong clinched 6 votes while Ambassador Nkoyo Toyo polled 4 votes with Mrs. Filia Henshaw scoring 2. Also, Mrs. Imah Nsa Adegoke polled just 1 vote.
Twenty void votes were recorded out of the 591 votes cast by the 591 accredited delegates who voted. 594 delegates were expected for the primaries. But, three delegates failed to turn up at the primaries including Obioma Liyel-Imoke, the wife of former Governor Liyel Imoke.
The State Chairman, Barr. Venatius Ikem had said this is the first congress the party will be holding since 1999 without a sitting Governor as the leader of the party.
He said the past year has been challenging which has led to the question of what informs the choice of leadership – sycophancy or capacity for the leaders or a pay cheque for the delegates.
In his acceptance speech, Sen. Onor commended his fellow aspirants and promised Cross Riverians that, “We are going to offer you a leadership that is different. We are going to offer you a leadership direction that will re-engineer our State, reinvigorate it and reposition it.”
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