Delta South: Diden wins PDP ticket with 176 votes as aspirant turns delegate

The immediate past Chairman of Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, DESOPADEC, Hon. Michael Diden aka Ejele, earlier today, Monday May 23, won the Delta South PDP Senatorial ticket with a massive vote of 176, beating his closest rival and former member of House of Representatives, Hon. Daniel Reyenieju with a differential of 127 votes. Hon. Reyenieju polled 49 votes.

A former Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. JFK Omatsone, scored 2 votes, leaving the 5^th contestant, Prince Barnabas Akporehe with zero vote.

Our Correspondents report that there was controversy when the total votes cast, was discovered to be 273 as against 272 delegates originally accredited by the party’s Presiding Officers.

The discrepancy in the number of votes cast, made the Returning Officer, Mr. Charles Ehiedu Aniagwu and the other party officials, who conducted the senatorial primary to dig-deep, only to discover that one of the aspirants, Sir Ayodele Oghogho Othihiwa, who polled 46 votes, actually voted as a delegate, even though he wasn’t among the initial 272 delegates accredited.  

Fresh Angle International can authoritatively report that Othihiwa, left the other four contestants to vote, immediately his name was called as one of the 277 ad-hoc delegates, penciled down to vote from the 8 local government areas that make up Delta South Senatorial District.

The mode of the primary which saw the delegates ticking the picture of their preferred aspirant, was done local government by local government.

This Newspaper had exclusively reported earlier today, how the Returning Officer, Mr. Charles Aniagwu, was initially prevented from entering the Warri City Stadium, venue of the Primary by some overzealous security men, only for Mr. Aniagwu to be called few minutes later to enter the stadium with other officials and pressmen, after he originally left the venue in anger.

The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in-charge of Delta State, Rev. Monday Udoh, was reportedly locked outside the Warri City Stadium for more than 2 hours, until Mr. Aniagwu had to put a call through to Delta State Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, who intervened, before Rev. Monday Udoh was allowed access to the stadium.

A Cross Section of some of the delegates

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