Senator Godswill Akpabio has been elected the President of the 10th Senate.

He trounced Senator Abdul’aziz Yari to emerge the new Senate President on Tuesday.

The former Akwa Ibom governor was returned elected as President of the 10th Senate after scoring 63 votes defeating Senator Yari who scored 46 votes.

Senator Akpabio was subsequently sworn in as the President of the Senate for the 10th National Assembly, succeeding Senator Ahmad Lawan, who is also a member of the 10th Senate.

Earlier, voting commenced at the Red Chamber in Abuja, Nigeria.

Voting begun at exactly 08:45am on Tuesday on a state by state basis, alphabetically.

Voting ended at exactly 09:15am.

Akpabio was sworn in at exactly 09:44am.

Nominations were received for Senator Yari and Senator Akpabio after which the Clerk of the Senate declared nominations closed in absence of further nominations.

The contest was between Yari, a former governor of Zamfara State and Akpabio, a former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs and ex-governor of Akwa Ibom State.

Akpabio and Yari are top-ranking chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The former Zamfara governor had before now protested the endorsement of the the former minister by the party and asked that the endorsement be reviewed but the APC did not shift ground.