The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the incumbent governor of Bayelsa State, Douye Diri, as the winner of Saturday’s governorship election held in the state.
The governor, who contested under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party in the hotly contested election, was declared the winner of the poll, defeating his closest rival from the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timipre Sylva, and others.
The returning officer of the election, Prof. Faruq Kuta, who is also the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Minna, announced Diri as the winner of the poll at the collation centre of the election on Monday.
According to the announced result, Diri polled 175,196 votes, defeating Timipre Sylva of the APC, who got 110,108 votes, while the candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Engr. Udengs Eradiri came third after polling 905 votes.
In the results, Diri won in six out of the eight Local Government Areas of the state, while the APC candidate, Sylva, won in two.
News About Nigeria reports that there was commotion earlier at the collation centre when INEC announced the results of Brass Local Government Area.
The trouble, which resulted in party agents throwing punches at each other, reportedly started when agents of the different parties disagreed on the result from the area.
Party agents of the APC and the PDP also disagreed on the reported occurrence of violence in the local government, but security officials were, however, able to intervene, bringing calm to the situation.
The Bayelsa gubernatorial election is part of the three off-cycle governorship elections that also took place in Kogi and Imo states on Saturday, November 11, 2023.
