By SAM JONES
YENAGOA (Sundiata Post) – Chief David Lyon has rejected the result of the governorship primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which was won by former Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva.
The direct primary election which adopted the Option A4 was held in all the 105 wards across the eight local government areas of the state and was contested by a total of six aspirants.
Major Gen Ahmed Jibrin (Rtd), chairman of the primary election committee, announced the result at the APC State Secretariat in Yenagoa on Saturday, saying the exercise was free, fair and credible.
But, Lyon, in a statement, said the governorship primary election was not conducted in all the 105 wards in the state.
He said people waited from morning till night on the day of the election and there was no distribution of election materials neither was there any presence of election officials.
Lyon stated that he particularly waited in his Olugbobiri, Olodiama II Ward 4 in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state from 8am till 8pm for election materials to no avail.
According to him, it was, therefore, very saddening to learn of a fraudulent declaration of a result emanating from that exercise, describing it as both irresponsible and criminal, and must be condemned in its entirety.
He called on the National Working Committee (NWC) and indeed the NEC of the party to reject the results as declared by the Primary Election Committee and sanction the promoters of such a devilish and irresponsible act.
In the result declared by Jibrin, Sylva, who governed the state from 2007 to 2012, scored 52,061 votes while Lyon, the 2019 governorship candidate of the APC, got 1,591 votes.
Other aspirants, Chief Festus Daumiebi received 557 votes, Prof. Ongoebi Maureen Etebu got 1,277 votes, ex-militant leader, Joshua Maciver scored 2,078 votes and Chief Ogbomade Isikima Johnson got 584 votes.
