Dickson wins Bayelsa state election

YENAGOA—Governor Seriakae Dickson was, yesterday, returned as the winner of the Bayelsa State governorship election. This followed the declaration of the results of the supplementary elections conducted at the weekend in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area and 101 polling units in six other local government areas. The supplementary elections followed the cancellation of the election in Southern Ijaw and the 101 units due to irregularities in the governorship election conducted on December 5, 2015.

Dickson, who was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, polled 134,988 votes to triumph over his predecessor and candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief Timipire Sylva who polled 86,852 votes. A total of 232,167 votes were cast in the election out of which 6,647 votes were rejected as invalid. Moses Siasia, a younger brother of Nigeria’s Under 23 football coach, Samson Siasia, who was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Movement, PDM, took a distant third with 1,572 votes despite a high-profile campaign.