Bayelsa shall be great again, gov-elect, David Lyon declares

Governor-Elect of Bayelsa state, David Lyon, has dedicated his victory to the people of Bayelsa state, as he vowed to make the state great again.

The 49-year-old candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was at the wee hour of Monday, declared the winner of the 2019 Bayelsa state governorship election held last Saturday.

In a message to the people shortly before he was officially declared the winner of the governorship election, Lyon vowed to “make the state great again”.

Lyon defeated Senator Douye Diri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in a landslide.

The APC candidate beat his PDP counterpart with a margin of 209, 380 votes.

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Prof Faraday Orumwense, INEC Electoral Returning Officer for the Bayelsa election who declared the winner at the Prof Mahmood Yakubu Media Centre, Yenagoa, venue for the state collation centre, said the APC candidate polled a total of 352, 552 votes to beat his closest rival, PDP’s Senator Duoye Diri who scored 143, 172 votes.

He added that the total registered voters for the Bayelsa election was 922, 562 and total accredited voters for the voting exercise were 517, 888.

Orumwense further stated that the voting exercise produced total valid votes of 499, 551; 633 rejected votes and a total vote cast of 505, 884.

Before the current development, the PDP has got a stranglehold of the oil-rich state since 1999 with the incumbent, Seriake Dickson rounding off his second term in office.

Meanwhile, as of 10:30a.m, jubilation has continued in the streets of Yenagoa over the victory of the APC governor-elect, Lyon as youths, armed with APC flags, were seen chanting and dancing in praise of the victory.