Statement By Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, CFR, On The Purported Declaration Of The Udu State Constituency Seat Vacant
I condemn in the strongest terms the reported decision of the Delta State House of Assembly to remove Hon. Collins Egbetamah, the duly elected representative of Udu State Constituency, without a fair hearing. This was not constitutional housekeeping. It was a hasty, arbitrary, oppressive, and illegal act intended to achieve a political objective that disparages and injures the people of Udu, the wider Urhobo Nation, and Delta State.
On the law: The House relies on Section 109(1)(g) as if it admits of no exception. The Constitution provides an exception where a defection arises from a division in the original party. That question of fact was never examined in any legislative hearing. There was also no judicial determination. The matter was rushed because a process grounded in the constitutional right to a fair hearing would not have produced the House’s predetermined outcome.
On due process: A mandate freely given by the people of Udu cannot be extinguished in a single sitting by voice vote. That is disturbing, disrespectful, and unacceptable. It was not the intendment of the framers of our Constitution. We are not a Banana Republic.
Hon. Egbetamah was entitled to be heard before his seat could be declared vacant. He was denied that right, and that is a fundamental breach of our constitutional order. Where due process is bypassed, tyranny and injustice prevail. A similar attempt was once made against me as a Senator representing Delta Central Senatorial District, but it was defeated through the integrity and independence of the judiciary. I cannot therefore accept its recurrence in our polity, no matter who directs it.
On motive: The haste, the shameful unanimity, and the timing betray the intent. This is a threat from a ruling party so afraid of defections that it resorts to arbitrary, extra-constitutional, and oppressive measures to survive. That strategy will fail in time. The people of Udu Local Government Area cannot be cowed by it. They elected a representative, and they now stand without one because he chose to do more for his people after enduring three years of sustained oppression in the House for the sole reason of being an APC member I helped to elect. Hon. Egbetamah’s offence was to stand on principle and defend the values of Urhobo republicanism.
Every legislator in Nigeria is entitled to choose the political party with which to associate, subject only to the limits set by the Constitution. No more, no less.
I call on the Delta State House of Assembly to reverse this declaration and accord Hon. Egbetamah the fair hearing he was denied. Should the courts be invited to intervene, I urge them to act with urgency so that Udu State Constituency is not left without representation on the strength of this arbitrary, oppressive, and premeditated decision.
Signed: His Excellency, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, CFR, KSJI Deputy President of the 9th Senate and The Obarisi of Urhoboland 1st July, 2027.
