The 2019 governor-elect, Chief David Pereworimini Lyon, and four other candidates were defeated in the All Progressives Congress, APC, gubernatorial primary by Chief Timipre Sylva, the recently-retired Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and former governor of Bayelsa State.
On Friday, the direct primary mode was used to hold the APC gubernatorial primaries in all 105 wards of the state.
Maj. Gen. A. T. Jibrin, ret., the chairman of the APC Primary Election Committee and Returning Officer, announced the results at the state APC secretariat on Saturday. Jibrin stated that Sylva received 52,061 votes in total to win, while Chief Joshua Maciver, an ex-agitator, came in a distant second with 2,078 votes, and Chief David Lyon, the former Governor elect, came in third with 1,582 votes.
Lyon who was conspicuously absent during the announcement of results was also not represented by an agent.
Prof Ongoebi Etebu Maureen got 1271 votes to come fourth, Ogomade Isikima Johnson polled 584 votes, while Mr Festus Daumiebi who walked out of the hall while the results were being called polled 557 votes.
Jibrin said out of the 142,031 registered parties members, 58,171 persons were accredited and voted, adding that the difficult terrain of the state caused the delay in the collation and announcement of results.
He declared: “Chief Timipre Sylva, having scored the highest number of votes is hereby declared as the winner.”
