Paul Osuyi, Asaba
The Cyril Ogodo-led faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta State has elected the leader of the party in the state, O’tega Emerhor as senatorial candidate for Delta central senatorial district in next year’s election.
Emerhor’s emergence is coming on the heels of an on going senatorial primaries by the Jones Erue-led state executive committee.
At the primary election conducted at Ughelli, Emerhor polled a total of 2,492 to defeat incumbent Senator Ovie Omo-Agege who scored four votes out of a total of 2,509 accredited votes with 13 voided votes.
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Declaring Emerhor winner of the primaries, Returning Officer, Solomon Igbiaye said: “Having met the requirement of the primary, I hereby declare Emerhor as winner of the primaries and hereby returned as candidate for the Delta Central election come 2019.”
In his acceptance speech, Emerhor who expressed confidence that the courts would uphold the Ogodo-led executive, said: “As you all know, the exco that voted here today, was duly inaugurated by the last national executive.
“I believe the court would ensure that this exco is upheld along with my candidacy. But unfortunately, another parallel primary is being held by some illegal delegates outside this place.”
Meanwhile, the Jones Erue-led faction has expelled Emerhor from the party over alleged forgery of party’s election materials (ballot papers), alteration of delegate lists, falsification of nomination results and tampering with the process of internal democracy of the party.
Emerhor’s expulsion was contained in a statement by the secretary of the party, Chidi Okonji shortly after the State Working Committee (SWC) meeting.