Mr Otu, a former federal lawmaker, won in 15 of the 18 local government areas of the state.

The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Cross River State, Bassey Otu, has been declared the governor-elect having scored the highest number of votes in the 18 March election.

Teddy Charles, a professor and returning officer for the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) in the state, said Mr Otu polled 258,619 votes to defeat the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Sandy Onor, who scored 179,636 votes, Channels TV reported.

Mr Otu, a former federal lawmaker, won in 15 of the 18 local government areas of the state. The results were declared by INEC in Calabar, the state capital, according to Channels.

With the victory, Mr Otu will become the first governor of the state to be elected on the platform of a different party outside PDP which had governed the state since the return of democracy in 1999.

The previous governors of the state, Donald Duke, Liyel Imoke and incumbent Ben Ayade were all elected for two terms of eight years on the platform of the PDP.

Mr Ayade, however, defected to the APC in 2021. He was one of the major supporters of Mr Otu.