By Musa Baba Adamu
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has listed 11 candidates from different political parties to battle for the governorship seat in Cross River State.
The eventual winner will succeed Prof Ben Ayade, the incumbent in May 2023.
The election umpire has displayed names of all the 11 candidates on its notice boards at the state headquarters in Calabar.
Amongst the 11 are Prince Bassey Otu, a former Senator who represented the Cross River Southern Senatorial District. He is the governorship candidate of the ruling APC in the state.
Another is the serving Senator, representing the Central Senatorial District, Prof Sandy Ojang Onor, PDP guber candidate.
Pastor Usani Guru Usani decamped from APC to the Peoples Redemption Party, seen to be almost non-existent in the state, and became their candidate.
President Muhammadu Buhari appointed him as Niger Delta Affairs Minister between November 2015 and May 2019. He had contested for the governorship seat in the state three times; in 2003, 2011, and 2019 and this would be his fourth attempt.
The other eight parties whose candidates have also been displayed, include Labour Party (LP), All Peoples Party (APP), Young Progressives Party (YPP), National Rescue Movement (NRM), and Social Democratic Party (SDP), African Democratic Congresses (ADC), Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and Action Aliance (AA).
