It’s official. The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr David Lyon, has won the November 16 governorship election in Bayelsa State, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared.

The Returning Officer and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Benin, Professor Faraday Orunmuwese, announced this on Monday morning.

The APC candidate polled a total of 352,552 votes to defeat his closest rival and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Duoye Diri, who scored 143,172 votes. The wide margin of 209, 380 votes leaves the incumbent PDP a paperweight in Bayelsa State.

However, the PDP candidate has rejected the result, citing violence, disenfranchisement of voters and falsification of result. He accused security personnel of colluding with APC to falsify result.

Some residents of the state faulted his claim, insisting that the people voted to protest the bad politics of Governor Seriake Dickson.

Meanwhile,  Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that it remained strong and united in the face of all its experience in the Bayelsa and Kogi governorship elections conducted on Saturday.

The party stated this in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan on Sunday in Abuja while reacting to the outcome of the two states governorship elections.

He said that the PDP would  continue to fully exert itself in upholding the wishes and aspirations of Nigerians.