By Francis Sadhere, Warri
Federal lawmaker, Chief Thomas Joel-Onowakpo, on Saturday won the Senatorial ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Delta South Senatorial District.
Joel-Onowakpo, who was the sole Senatorial aspirant, polled 285 votes to emerge the candidate of the APC.
Accreditation of voters and voting commenced at about 2:05 pm at the primary election being held at the Oleh Civic Centre, Oleh.
Joel-Onowakpo, arrived the venue at about 11am amidst cheers from stakeholders, leaders and delegates.
National Reformer reports that there was heavy security presence at the venue of the primary election, witnessed by officials of the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC.
Chairman of the electoral panel, Sir John Ebireri, who declared the results, gave total number of delegates as 360 adding that Joel-Onowakpo polled 285 votes with 75 invalid vote.
Speaking to newsmen moments after his declaration, Joel-Onowakpo Thomas thanked the leadership of the party and the people of Delta South Senatorial District for making him the party’s gubernatorial flag bearer.
Joel-Onowakpo said The Delta South Senatorial District should be ready to put their hands together to make sure they deliver him adding that “there will marked differences in the way legislative duties will be done in the National Assembly.”
He said the Delta APC was poised more than ever before, to win elections in the state as the were now very united and vowed that they are going to win the next elections come 2023.
“Today APC is more united more than ever. The APC we have today is poised to win elections and it is hungry for power and success. So if anybody is telling you today that we are not united, if you had not asked me today in public, I would say let it be like that so that we will surprise them. We are very united and we are going to win this election by God’s grace.
Joel-Onowakpo noted that if elected into office he is going to work together with his colleagues to ensure that the issue of primary health care services is addressed.
“The primary health care services needs to be addressed because o have come to realize that the thing that killed Nigerians and take them out of the country are little things – high blood pressure, malaria and the rest of them. So along with other of my colleagues, if voted into power we will be able to manage those problems and see that those ailments are tackled at the root.
“Another thing I want to do together with my colleagues at the National Assembly if voted into power is that we will ensure that there are sustainable ways to assist the state government in reduce poverty in their environment.
“The greatest thing that can happen to any man is poverty and once there is poverty this van lead to poverty of the mind and once there is poverty of the mind there is nothing you can do to correct the human race. That needs to be addressed in a sustainable way.
The current President is doing so he can to reduce it, but we need to find a sustainable way of doing it so that we will know that it’s established like every other thing.
“I am someone with wide experience in governance, I am someone with experience in public service and I will bring in all these experiencea to bare in the National Assembly together with my other colleagues,” Joel-Onowakpo said.
On the issue of factions in Delta APC, Joel-Onowakpo said, “There are are no factions in APC. I want to say this today. The APC we have today is far better than the APC we had in 2018. Today those that were disagreeing in Delta have collapsed their structures to work together as one united family.”
