The congress started 10:00 am at the Federal College of Education (Technical), Asaba, lasting over seven hours, with Mr. Cyril Ogodo scoring 731 votes to beat his only rival, Mr. Fred Obe, who polled 99 votes out of 1439 votes. Ten of the votes were voided.
The Delta State chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC) on Monday conducted its state congress, with former Deputy Chairman of the party, Mr. Cyril Ogodo, emerging the chairman.
The congress, which was generally peaceful, was attended by the state party leader, Mr. O'tega Emerhor; former speaker, Delta State House of Assembly, Mr. Victor Ochei; former presidential aide, Mr. Ima Niboro, NDDC Executive Director of Projects, Mr. Samuel Adjogbe and Mr. Hyacinth Enuha.
The congress started 10:00 am at the Federal College of Education (Technical), Asaba, lasting over seven hours, with Mr. Cyril Ogodo scoring 731 votes to beat his only rival, Mr. Fred Obe, who polled 99 votes out of 1439 votes. Ten of the votes were voided.
Immediately after the counting of votes of the delegates from the 25 local government areas of the state, chairman of the state congress committee, Mr. Eugene Odoh, declared Mr. Ogodo winner of the chairmanship seat while other contestants were returned unopposed.
In his acceptance speech, Mr. Ogodo said it's only in Delta state that a free, fair and peaceful congress was held in the presence of representatives of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the National Working Committee of the party.
While commending his co-contestant for accepting the outcome of the congress and his show of maturity and sportsmanship, Mr. Ogodo thanked all the delegates, party elders, leaders and INEC officials for the peaceful and successful congress .
"Chief Barrister Fred Obe, I commend your maturity, sportsmanship, especially your boldness for contesting for the APC State Chairmanship seat with me, which shows that you are a man with a big heart whom I can work with. Let us go home and be more united to install APC government in Delta state come 2019."
Speaking on the conduct of the exercise, Emerhor expressed gratitude to all party faithful, elders and leaders for their comportment throughout the congress, adding: "We have gone ahead to obey the NWC, which postponed the congress for today (Monday). At the end of this exercise, the appeal committee will come and review what has been done before the results would be taken to Abuja for certification."
He assured the people that all aggrieved members of the party would be reached, saying that already the process had started: "After this congress, we would reach out to them and that is the role national is going to play and I can assure you that the process has started already."
Also speaking, the Delta North leader of the party, Mr. Hyacinth Enuha, stated that "beyond all expectations, we have had a successful congress and we give credit to the leader of the party in the state, Olorogun Emerhor for the organization of the congress".
Ochei described the congress as one of the best and peaceful ever witnessed since his coming into politics and commended all the party leaders and elders for the achievement.
"The organization, voting and process has been fantastic and am impressed that everyone is here to witness what a real state congress is all about. I am happy and satisfied with the peaceful and successful conduct of the state congress."
Also, Mr. Ojougboh hailed the peaceful and successful conduct of the congress, saying: "Whatever you see happening in the party today is all a family disagreement and APC is one family and we shall over come.”