Former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva will be the standard-bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Bayelsa State governorship election holding on 11th November.
Sylva, who recently resigned as Minister to contest for the party ticket, won the governorship primary by polling 52,061 out of the 58, 141 votes from the 105 wards in the eight local government areas of the state. His closest opponent, Great Joshua MacIver scored 2,078 votes, while Chief David Lyon, the governor-elect whose victory was nullified by the Supreme Court on the eve of his inauguration in 2019, received 1,582 votes.
The chairman of the APC Governorship Election Committee for the state, Major General Ahmed Jibrin (rtd.), who announced the results at the party secretariat in Yenagoa, said that Prof. Ongoebi Etebu polled 1277 votes, Mrs Ikisima Ogbomade had 584 votes, while Barrister Festus Daumiebi received 557 votes.
Sylva was governor of the state from 29th May 2007 until the Court of Appeal nullified his election on 16th April 2008 and ruled that the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Werinipre Seibarugo be sworn in as acting Governor, with a new election to be held within three months.
Sylva won the new election on 24th May 2008, and was sworn in again three days later. But on 27th January 2012, his tenure was terminated by the Supreme Court with an acting governor appointed to oversee the state until the election of February 2012.
After announcing the outcome of the primary, Jibrin commended the aspirants and party members for their peaceful conduct and a hitch-free exercise which has produced a candidate for the party.
Sylva’s agent, Hon. Israel Sunny-Goli commended the election committee for its dedication and diligence during the exercise. He said that the party has taken the right step in picking Sylva whom he described as the next governor of Bayelsa State. He also expressed delight with the comportment of the other aspirants noting that APC in the state is one big family.
Maciver said that his fellow aspirants and himself knew that it was going to be a Herculean task to defeat Sylva, whether in a direct or indirect primary election. He assured that the aspirants would join hands with him to ensure that the APC wins the governorship election.
Etebu described the exercise as peaceful stressing that with Sylva’s emergence as the candidate, there is no victor, no vanquished.
In his acceptance speech, Sylva corroborated Etebu’s words of no victor, no vanquished adding that the party has an urgent task to reclaim the state. While lamenting the state of development in the state, he criticised the Peoples Democratic Party-led government in the state for not paying attention to power generation and control of flooding in the state.
“I will not consider myself having won an election against fellow aspirants. Etebu has already said there is no victor no vanquished and I adopt that wholeheartedly. We are one family; we are one people, one Bayelsa. And all of us have one paramount interest; that interest is the forward movement and progress and development of our dear state of Bayelsa. This is what has driven us to contest and no one person can claim to have the solution to the problems of Bayelsa state. It is a collective work by all of us that can bring development to the state.
“We have a lot of problems as you know; I am very sure anybody that comes to Bayelsa for the first time knows that Bayelsa needs development. You don’t need a soothsayer to tell you that. Bayelsa needs empowerment; you don’t need a soothsayer to tell you that.
“When I was governor the last time, I was 42 years old. I have gone out there and I have experience. I have become bigger and better. I have seen the world and the world knows me now and I know the world. I have to use all that experience that I have garnered to develop Bayelsa State.
“The first job we have to do is to win the 11th November 2023 election. We must all join hands together now. We must hit the ground running. All aspirants must come together. We should think on how to deliver this party. We have a major task before us and Bayelsans are looking up to us to deliver, Bayelsans that have been enslaved by poverty”, Sylva pointed out.
