By SAM JONES
YENAGOA (Sundiata Post) – Former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, has been declared winner of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary for Bayelsa State for November 11 governorship election.
Sylva, who was governor from 2007 to 2012, polled a total of 52,061 votes to defeat five other aspirants including the 2019 governorship candidate of the party, Chief David Lyon in a direct primary of the party.
With the result, Sylva will now square up with the incumbent governor, Senator Douye Diri, who had earlier in the week emerged the candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the governorship election.
Declaring the results on Saturday at the APC state Secretariat in Yenagoa, the chairman of the APC Primary Election Committee for Bayelsa State, Maj. Gen. A. T. Jibrin (Rtd), said the exercise was conducted peacefully on Friday across the state.
Other aspirants, Chief David Lyon, scored 1,591 votes, Chief Festus Daumiebi, 557; Ongoebi Etebu Maureen, 1277 votes and Joshua Maciver, 2078 votes while Ogbomade Johnson had 584 votes.
He said the panel acted on the mandate given to them by the national leadership of the party to conduct free and fair primary to choose the party candidate for the November 11 governorship election.
He said that though the difficult terrain of the state delayed the conclusion of the exercise, but they were able to conduct a primary acceptable by the aspirants and stakeholders of the party.
Two aspirants, Ongoebi Etebu Maureen and Joshua Maciver, expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the primary and promised to work for the victory of the party come November 11.
