Mr. Timipre Sylva and Bayelsa State Governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson
A former Governor of Bayelsa State,
Timipre Sylva, has emerged the candidate of the All Progressives
Congress for the December 5 governorship election in the state after
winning the party’s primary.
Sylva polled 981 votes to defeat his
distant rival, Mr. Godknows Powell, who scored 39 votes in a peaceful
primary conducted at the state secretariat of the party in Yenagoa on
Wednesday.
The primary was conducted by a seven-member electoral committee led by Brig. Gen. Mansur Dan-Ali (retd.).
With this victory, Sylva will face incumbent Governor Seriake Dickson, who defeated him in the 2011 governorship election.
A two-time former member of the House of Representatives, Warman Ogoriba scored 28 votes.
Another aspirant, Diekivie Ikiogha,
scored 22 votes while Ebite Williams got nine votes and Charity Valdego
scored seven votes. Messrs Preye Aganaba and Febo Austin scored eight
and seven votes respectively, among others.
Out of 1,147 total votes cast at the poll, the chairman of the panel declared 1,120 votes valid and declared 27 votes invalid.
The rescheduled primary was peaceful and
largely devoid of rancour and violence which characterised the initial
exercise that was held on September 22 at the Samson Siasia Sports
Complex.
Delegates conducted themselves in an
orderly manner from 11pm on Tuesday till Wednesday afternoon when they
cast their votes after accreditation.
There was, however, a brief protest at
the venue of the election when Ikiogha led some aggrieved aspirants to
the area, accusing the panel of shutting them out of the exercise.
For about an hour, Ikiogha and some other aggrieved aspirants kept the panel chairman busy with their complaints.
Ikiogha said the panel came to the state
without meeting with them to intimate them on the modalities for the
election, alleging that the committee came with a mandate to stop them
from partaking in the exercise.
He said, “This election is worse than
the previous exercise that was cancelled. We are aware that a new list
of delegates was compiled the previous night for the purpose of the
election.
This is not the change we advocated for. We are appealing for the cancellation of the election.”
But the committee chairman insisted that
the process was transparent and appealed to the aggrieved aspirants to
maintain the peace.
After lodging their complaints, the
angry aspirants walked out of the venue of the exercise and refused to
come back till the end of the election
Sylva, who was declared winner of the primary around 4pm by Dan-Alli, thanked the delegates for electing him for second time.
He also commended the electoral
committee members for a job well, saying that politicians still had had a
lot to learn from the military.
Apparently alluding to Edo State
Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, Sylva lampooned the governor for alleged
inability to conduct the primary.
He said, “I am very happy today to
accept this victory that you have given to me for the second time. I
will like to tell all of you today that this is only the beginning of
the journey. Today, I have seen that we politicians have a lot to learn
from the military.
“What a great and serving governor of a
great state of this country was incapable of doing just a few days ago
has been achieved by a retired general and his team. This tells me that
we have a lot to learn from the military.”
Meanwhile, one of the topmost contenders for the APC governorship race, Chief Ndutimi Alaibe, withdrew from the contest
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