Timipre Sylva,The immediate-past Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, has emerged candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the November 11 governorship election in Bayelsa State.
Sylva polled 52,061 votes to defeat five other contenders to win the governorship ticket at the party’s primary election conducted on Friday and Saturday.
The APC adopted the direct mode electoral system to hold the exercise in the 105 wards and eight local government areas of the state.
Joshua Macaiver came second with 2,078 votes while a former governor-elect on the platform of the APC, David Lyon came third with 1,584 votes, Prof. Ongoebi Etebu polled 1,277 votes; Isikima Johnson 584 votes; and Festus Daumiebi polled 557 votes.
The chairman of the APC primary election committee for Bayelsa, Major General Ahmed Jibrin (retd.), declared the former governor as the winner of the exercise at the party’s secretariat in Yenagoa on Saturday.
He said, “With this result, Timipre Marlin Sylva, having scored the highest number of votes cast is hereby declared as the winner.
Sylva ruled Bayelsa from 2007 to 2012 under PDP but he was denied second-term ticket.
The former minister defected to the APC and emerged as its governorship candidate in 2015 but was defeated by the then-incumbent governor, Seriake Dickson of the PDP.
