President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday congratulated Mr Liyel Imoke on his victory in last Saturday’s governorship election in Cross River

In a congratulatory message issued in Abuja, by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Reuben Abati, Jonathan urged the governor-elect to speed up pace of economic development in the state.

“You must move quickly to establish a dedicated, purposeful and efficient administration that will help to consolidate on the laudable achievements of your first term and boost the pace of socio-economic development in the state.”

The President assured the returning governor of the continued support, cooperation and assistance of the Federal Government.

He further urged him to work hard to justify the confidence reposed in him by the people of Cross River by fulfilling their expectations of faster development.

The President, wished the governor-elect a very successful second term.

Our correspondent recalls that Imoke, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial candidate for  last Saturday’s governorship election in Cross River State, scored 451,344 votes to emerge winner of the election.

Mr Usani Usani of the ACN came second with 31,026 votes, while Patrick Okomiso of the ANPP came third with 2,235 votes.

Meanwhile, the Cross River governor-elect, Sen. Liyel Imoke, has assured the electorate of more dividends of democracy in his second term.

Imoke gave the assurance yesterday in Calabar at an interactive session with journalists in his private residence after he was declared the winner of Saturday’s election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

“ln one sentence, we want every Cross Riverian to be far better than they were when we met them and when we came in, that is the intention,’’ he said.

He also commended the mass media for the effective and balanced coverage of the February 25 poll in the state.

“I thank you for all the support and the good reporting we have received. It has been very participatory and you have been balanced in your reporting.

“I want to thank the Almighty God for this day and everything, especially throughout this period that is truly historic,’’ the governor-elect said.

He said he had been involved in many elections in Cross River and could retire from politics and go into election consulting because he had done not just his own election but had been involved in elections since 1999 when he ran for the Senate.

“I ran elections in 1999, 2003 and then 2007, 2008 and now in 2012.

“It is very rare for you to have a situation where you run through all these elections and in all of them you come out a victor.

“And I think that for us, it is extremely special, that is why we are particularly appreciative, and particularly grateful for the support of the people of Cross River for their affection, for trust and confidence and for the outpouring of affection,’’ he said.

“It has been tremendous and unprecedented and very rare that after so many years in politics, you go into an election and your margin of victory seems to get higher.

The governor-elect said his administration would be focused on developing a service-driven economy.

“We need to focus and pay more attention to hospitality industries, pay more attention to what we call the knowledge economy that we are trying to develop, including the Tinapa, Knowledge City and other projects along this line.

“We also believe that we can properly position ourselves to deliver services in the mines, industries, meetings, incentives, conferences, entertainment — that is why we are developing the international conference centre and other facilities.

“We also believe very strongly that in addition to this is the entire need for some medical tourism as part of the services we are going to deliver,’’ he said.

“We think that we will continue to take government to our people, that is extremely critical,’’ he said.