{"id":196866,"date":"2026-03-17T02:10:47","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T01:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/ejele-explains-reasons-to-sack-onowakpo-from-senate"},"modified":"2026-03-17T03:31:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T02:31:45","slug":"ejele-explains-reasons-to-sack-onowakpo-from-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/ejele-explains-reasons-to-sack-onowakpo-from-senate","title":{"rendered":"Ejele Explains Reasons to Sack Onowakpo from Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>A former Board Chairman of Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC), Michael Diden, popularly known as \u2018Ejele,\u2019 has vowed to unseat Senator Joel Onowakpo-Thomas, currently representing Delta South in the Senate, come 2027.<\/p>\n<p>Ejele, who spoke about his political ambition during an empowerment programme organized by Nicholas Efele, Executive Director of Planning, Research and Statistics at DESOPADEC, insisted that the incumbent senator has overstayed his usefulness in the upper chamber.<\/p>\n<p>Ejele, who is relying on the new reform whereby all card-carrying members participate in selecting candidates for political parties during primaries, unlike the delegate-based system, said, \u201cThe people of Delta South have been able to compare the records of the present senator and Michael Diden.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs I speak to you, there\u2019s a yearning everywhere that we need Michael Diden in the Senate. He is the only one who can represent us, and represent us well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTherefore, I cannot allow that voice to die in the wilderness. I have come to make known to the people of Delta South, by declaring to them, that Michael Diden is in the race for Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ejele, during the 2023 elections in which he contested under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), won seven local government areas, while Onowakpo-Thomas won only one.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis time it will be 8\/8, meaning to win all eight local government areas in Delta South Senatorial District,\u201d Ejele stated.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. A former Board Chairman of Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC), Michael Diden, popularly known as \u2018Ejele,\u2019 has vowed to unseat Senator Joel Onowakpo-Thomas, currently representing Delta South in the Senate, come 2027. Ejele, who spoke about his political ambition during an empowerment programme organized by Nicholas Efele, Executive Director [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":196865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[254],"class_list":["post-196866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ejele Explains Reasons to Sack Onowakpo from Senate - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A former Board Chairman of Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC), Michael Diden, popularly ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/ejele-explains-reasons-to-sack-onowakpo-from-senate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ejele Explains Reasons to Sack Onowakpo from Senate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A former Board Chairman of Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC), Michael Diden, popularly ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/ejele-explains-reasons-to-sack-onowakpo-from-senate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-17T01:10:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-17T02:31:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/03\/sm_1773714571.696631.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/ejele-explains-reasons-to-sack-onowakpo-from-senate#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/ejele-explains-reasons-to-sack-onowakpo-from-senate\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Ejele Explains Reasons to Sack Onowakpo from Senate\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-17T01:10:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-17T02:31:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/ejele-explains-reasons-to-sack-onowakpo-from-senate\"},\"wordCount\":247,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/ejele-explains-reasons-to-sack-onowakpo-from-senate#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/03\/sm_1773714571.696631.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/ejele-explains-reasons-to-sack-onowakpo-from-senate#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/ejele-explains-reasons-to-sack-onowakpo-from-senate\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/ejele-explains-reasons-to-sack-onowakpo-from-senate\",\"name\":\"Ejele Explains Reasons to Sack Onowakpo from Senate - 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