Young Widow Wins Her Late Husband’s Seat In Cross River Bye-election

A widow of a member of the Cross River House of Assembly has taken over her husband’s seat, following her victory at the Obudu Constituency bye-election, held on Saturday.

Mrs Abbey Ukpukpen

The Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mrs Abbey Ukpukpen, has won Saturday’s Obudu State Constituency Bye-Election into the Cross River House of Assembly.

Mrs Abbey Ukpukpen, widow of a 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.

The widow who won her husband’s seat
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 valued 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 year’s general elections.

Therefore, Mrs Abbey Ukpukpen, a staff of the University of Calabar, will now replace her late husband in the assembly.