Chief Timipre Sylva, former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and Leader of the APC in Bayelsa, on Sunday, expressed appreciation to the party’s faithful after emerging as its candidate in the just concluded governorship primaries.

Sylva said:” This is not a personal victory, it is a collective one. Our party has once again demonstrated what true democracy is, and how elections should be – peaceful, credible, and reflective of the people’s wishes.

“I thank the other aspirants. As a party and as a people we owe them a debt of gratitude. I do not see their move as one of ambition, all I see, all that can be seen is true love and patriotism for our state and party.

“I thank members of our great party who came out en masse to vote. I know the dream that spurred you on – a better Bayelsa, a more accountable state, a truly prosperous state, and the original Glory of All Lands.”

Sylva, who enlisted the support of other aspirants who contested along with him, stated that they would work together to achieve the collective aim of returning to winning ways in the state.

“I will work with the other aspirants and party stakeholders and we will create the Bayelsa we all yearn for; we will make every Bayelsa person proud of our state.

“Our brothers and sisters from other political divides must have watched how the APC elections went.

“We demand the same decorum in the general elections. Bayelsa people deserve the right to freely exercise their franchise, they must have a stake in their own state,” Sylva said

Sylva was declared winner of the APC primaries by Gen. Ahmed Jibrin, Chairman of the APC Election Committee for Bayelsa, on Saturday.

Sylva, a former Governor of Bayelsa, would be facing PDP’s Gov Douye Diri who emerged unopposed from the party’s primaries for a second term.

The APC had in 2019 won the Bayelsa governorship seat in a landslide, but the Supreme Court in a verdict on the eve of the inauguration, annulled the victory over irregularities in the Deputy Governorship candidate of the APC.