BREAKING: Sylva beats Alaibe, wins APC Bayelsa governorship ticket as violence mars the primaries

Ex-Bayelsa State Governor, Timipre Sylva has been declared winner of the All Progressives Congress, APC, primary election in the state.

Sylva polled 726 votes to defeat his closest rival, Timi Alaibe, a former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, who got 4 votes.

This site  gathered that a total of 1,502 delegates were expected at the primary election.

Nineteen aspirants had signified interest in becoming the candidate of the APC. 

In a related development, APC governorship primaries in Bayelsa today  was marred by violence and fraud when thugs invaded the venue. Some aspirants as well as party officials including the Chairman of the Electoral Committee and Edo state governor Adams Oshiomole was held hostage and was later smuggled out of the venue by operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS) and soldiers

 The Samson Siasia Stadium in Yenagoa, venue of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary, was on Tuesday turned to a battle field as supporters of two leading governorship aspirants, Timi Alaibe and Timipre Sylva engaged themselves in violent clashes which left scores, including Alaibe, injured. "It was a pathetic sight to see a political event reduced to a combat", said an eye witness.

Trouble was said to have started when it was discovered by Alaibe and his supporters that accredited delegates from Brass, the LG of his arch-rival, Sylva, were far more than all delegates from the other LGs combined. It was in a bid to challenge what was seen as an anomaly by Alaibe and his supporters that a heated argument ensued resulting in a free- for- all between the opposing camps. In the process, Alaibe and many others sustained injuries.

To demonstrate his anger and disapproval of the electoral process, Alaibe was also said to have stormed out of the venue with his supporters in protest. Further investigation showed that many of those who participated in the fracas were ordinarily not supposed to attend the primary because they were not delegates but came as organised party thugs and militants on both sides to drum support for their respective choice of aspirants.

The bloody violence in which all manner of weapons were freely used, including broken bottles, cutlasses, knives and charms could have led to loss of lives except for the quick intervention of the police and other law enforcement agencies on ground. Even as the police used tear gas to repel elements seen as hired thugs and militants, a number of the victims loyal to Alaibe complained bitterly that they were stabbed by Sylva’s men.

All efforts by the Adams Oshiomhole committee responsible for the conduct of the primary election to save the day proved abortive as Alaibe, in company of his close associates, left the venue in obvious protest of the situation. Many of his supporters were also seen joining him in their mass exit from the Samson Siasia stadium venue.

Alaibe was said to be getting ready to address a press conference on the issue later today.