The governor-elect for Bayelsa State, David Lyon has promised to consult with traditional rulers, party leaders and other relevant stakeholders to bring about positive change to the State.“Today, on behalf of my APC leaders, I promise Bayelsans that we will serve them and not them to serve us. We also promise to respect leadership which is key for us. Today their vote has been counted and the people of Bayelsa will be respected.”
Lyon spoke to news men today, November 18 shortly after he was formally presented to President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential Villa by the chairman of the the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He vowed to fulfill his campaign promises, one of which is the provision of security and another is the issue of development.
“I believe there will be a serious positive change in Bayelsa State.
“This incoming administration will make Bayelsans to see positive developments and that is key to us.”
Also speaking, the minister of State for Petroleum resources, Timiprey
Badaru
We want to thank Baylesans, they are remarkable. They know what they want, they know when they are frustrated how to act and they have acted right.
I want to thank the leader of our party in Bayelsa State, the Minister of State of Petroleum, who digging out the right candidate. So the success of this election is in our being able to come up with the man of the people.
I have been there, I have seen where he lives, I have seen the crowd that comes to him and I have seen how he engages with them. He is a technical man of the people and that is why he has been rewarded with so much heavy votes. He is a man that is always with his community and he is a man that always supports his community, and that made the job of the election very easy and simple.
We were on ground there, like the chairman said earlier, we have history of elections in Bayelsa what it use to be and you have seen what happens there.
For the three days of voting and counting, not a single soul to my knowledge was killed. Of course, there were pockets of violence, ballot box snatching which results to a council but when you look at the magnitude, there are so few compared to what use to happen in Bayelsa. I will credit this also to the right choice of the candidate, which means most of the people are with him and hence no need to create any trouble. And that translated to the vote that we got. Because it shows the number of people that came out to vote for him indicated that, opposition cannot even try to make trouble and that was why we had a very peaceful, transparent election.
Of course I thank Baba Buhari for his guide, support and for his concern for elections being peaceful, free and fair.
We had a court order disqualifying our candidate, one on Tuesday, second one Thursday but because this is what the PDP saw and wanted to take advantage of the court to run away with what the people want, but God willing we got stay in the two judgements and run for the election and showed them what Bayelsans actually want.
Sylva
It’s been a very hectic week but I will like to bring in this Eritrean proverb, that if you marry a wife very well, you will be blessed with another wife. Governor Dickson, unfortunately made our job very easy because he married the wife very badly. Of course this proverb pre-supposes that if you marry a wife badly, you will not get another wife. So he did not marry the state very well, so the state roundly rejected him.
Like it’s been said earlier, we had a good candidate and when you have a good product it’s very easy to sell it. So we went round and sold this good to Bayelsans and the result was an overwhelming success.
We are happy with this victory because for us it is very significant. This gives our party a footprint in the Niger Delta, which is very key to us. It gives us more of a national outlook, we have always been a national party but this gives us even a bigger national outlook.
I have always said that if our party doesn’t have this much of a footprint in the bread basket of the country, it was not too good for us. But now we have it and I want to assure you that from a small seed, the biggest tree will grow. From here we will gradually grow the party in the south south and the south east. APC is a good product just like our governor and we intend to sell that good product in the whole of the south south and the south east.
Baguda
We are privileged to present to Mr. President, the governor-elect, David Lyon, whose quality had been described by other speakers.
Many people worked hard in making this happen, most importantly, Mr. President, who has always shown the party that win or lose we should aim for free, transparent and fair elections. Because, that is what will guarantee peace, confer legitimacy and support for elected persons to proudly execute the mandate that they are given. And in Bayelsa we have seen a demonstration of that.
Everyone is talking about how free, transparent and fair the elections were. We were in Bayelsa for over 72 hours we didn’t see a tyre burning, we didn’t see people running, we didn’t hear a gunshot, everyone was celebrating in all the areas we passed, which shows the acceptance of our candidate, our party and the process itself.
It is equally note worthy that Bayelsa is a home of a former president of Nigeria and this election won by a party different from the one he belongs, has been accepted by all including around him and so far, from what we hear and what we are, he also is happy with the outcome irrespective of the difference in the party, which is an indication of the transparency of the process.
This is a victory for Nigeria because it shows that parts of the country that has been under another political party, can in a free, fair election make their democratic choice and vote for another party with the right candidate.
