Gubernatorial Election Results – APC Wins In Bayelsa, Bello Coasts To Victory In Kogi

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.

But while Lyon and the Bayelsa APC were already celebrating, the Kogi State APC and its governorship candidate, Governor Yahaya Bello, would have to wait till after 10am today for the final result.

This is because INEC postponed the announcement of the results of governorship elections to Monday.

The Returning Officer for the Kogi State governorship election, Prof. Ibrahim Umar, said the postponement was necessary because INEC was still expecting results from Ibaji and Lokoja LGAs while that of Dekina needed clarifications.

But before the postponement, the electoral umpire had declared results of 18 out of the 21 local government areas. Out of the 18 LGAs results, Bello won in 10 while his closest rival, Musa Wada of the PDP, won in eight LGAs.

With the results released by INEC, Bello who is the candidate of the APC in the Saturday governorship poll in the state, had polled 365,135 votes while Wada had 151,566 votes.