Nigeria ruling party wins vote in Cross Rivers state

CALABAR,  - Nigeria's ruling party candidate has won a governorship election by a landslide in Cross Rivers state, a relatively peaceful, stable area of the oil-producing Niger Delta, the electoral commission said on Sunday.
Incumbent governor Liyel Imoke of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) won Saturday's election with 94.35 percent in the state, where most voters are from President Goodluck Jonathan's Ijaw ethnic group.
Nigeria's 36 state governors control budgets bigger than many African countries' and are some of the most powerful politicians in the nation.
Those in the oil-rich Niger Delta, a maze of swamps and creeks that empties Africa's second longest river into the Atlantic, get a bigger allocation of national oil revenues in Africa's top producer.
Cross Rivers, one of three Nigerian states in the delta, has been relatively free from the attacks on oil facilities by militants or criminal gangs that have plagued other parts.
This month, the PDP also secured a win in Bayelsa, Jonathan's home state. (Reporting by Austin Ekeinde; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Alison Williams)