The final results, which were announced at the presidential election collation centre in Cross River early Tuesday morning, indicated that Obi polled 179,917, besting Tinubu’s 130,520, Atiku’s 95,425, and Kwankwaso’s 1,644.
This makes Obi’s fourth state win after Nasarawa, Enugu and Lagos.
Triumph for the former Anambra State governor in the Cross River is significant for a number of reasons.
or one, Cross River is historically a PDP state, having seen three consecutive two-term governors emerging from the party since 1999, including the incumbent Governor Ben Ayade when he was elected in 2015 and re-elected in 2019.
However, Ayade’s defection to the APC in 2021 earned the ruling party a crucial South-South state after losing Edo State to the PDP and a recently defected Governor Godwin Obaseki, who won the state’s lone 2020 governorship poll.
In Cross River, the presidential poll recorded 1,691,642 registered voters.