The candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Bayelsa State, Chief David Lyon, has emerged the winner of the governorship election held on Saturday.
Lyon, who won in six of the state’s eight local government areas, defeated his closest rival, Senator Douye Diri of the Peoples Democratic Party.
Diri won in two local governments.
Lyon’s victory marks the first time the PDP would lose a governorship election in the state since the nation returned to democracy in 1999.
The Chief Returning Officer, Prof. Faraday Orumwense, had after he released the result of the Ekeremor Local Government Area, which was the last being expected by INEC on Monday night, promised that the final result would be made public before 1am on Monday.
Orumwense made good his promise as he announced that Lyon polled 352,552 votes to defeat Diri, who polled 143,172 votes some minutes after 1am.
Lyon was declared winner in six out of the eight local governments announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission at the Prof. Mahmood Yakubu Media Centre in the state commission’s headquarters in Yenagoa, the state capital.
The six local government areas won by the APC are Brass; Nembe; Ogbia, Southern Ijaw, Ekeremor and Yenagoa while the PDP won in the Sagbama and Kolokuma/Opokuma local government areas.
In the Sagbama LGA, Bayelsa East Senatorial District, the APC polled 7, 831 votes while the PDP scored 60,339 votes.
The result from Nembe LGA, Bayelsa East showed that the APC garnered 83,041 votes while the PDP polled 874 votes.
In the Kolouma/Opokuma LGA, Bayelsa Central, the APC scored 8,934 votes while the PDP scored 15,360 votes. In the Brass LGA, Bayelsa East, the APC got 23,831 votes while the PDP polled 10,410 votes.
The APC scored 24,607 votes in Yenagoa LGA in Bayelsa Central, while the PDP got 19,184 votes.
In the former President Goodluck Jonathan’s Ogbia LGA, Bayelsa East, the APC defeated the PDP candidate by garnering 58,016 votes while Diri polled 13,763 votes.
In Southern Ijaw Local Government, the APC candidate polled 124,803 votes while his rival got 4,898 votes.
Lyon also defeated Diri in Ekeremor LGA by polling 21,489 to the PDP’s candidate’s 18,344 votes.
