APC has chosen Timipre Sylva as its candidate for the November 11 governorship election in Bayelsa State. Sylva, who previously served as the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, emerged victorious in the party’s primary election held on Friday and Saturday, polling 52,061 votes.
The APC utilized a direct mode electoral system across the state’s 105 wards and eight local government areas for the exercise.
Sylva faced competition from five other contenders, including Joshua Macaiver, a former militant leader who came in second with 2,078 votes, and David Lyon, a former governor-elect on the platform of the APC, who came in third with 1,584 votes. Prof. Ongoebi Etebu, Isikima Johnson, and Festus Daumiebi also contested in the primary election, receiving 1,277, 584, and 557 votes respectively.
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The chairman of the APC primary election committee for Bayelsa, Major General Ahmed Jibrin (retd.), declared Sylva as the winner of the exercise at the party’s secretariat in Yenagoa on Saturday.
Sylva had previously served as the governor of Bayelsa from 2007 to 2012 under the platform of the PDP, but was denied a second-term ticket by the party. He later defected to the APC and became its governorship candidate in 2015, but was defeated by the incumbent governor at the time, Seriake Dickson of the PDP.
Sylva’s emergence as the APC candidate for the upcoming Bayelsa governorship election sets the stage for a competitive political contest in the state, as various parties and candidates vie for the support of the electorate.
