The National President of the Niger Delta Youth for Good Governance [NDYFGG] and First Elected Executive Pioneer National President of PAP Scholarship Students Worldwide, Comr. Lucky O.O. Ukueku, has condemned the declaration of the Udu Constituency seat vacant by the Delta State House of Assembly.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday, Comr. Ukueku described the action as “an act of injustice” against the people of Udu and their duly elected representative, Hon. Collins Egbetamah.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria [NAN], the Delta State House of Assembly on Tuesday declared the Udu Constituency seat vacant after Hon. Egbetamah defected from the All Progressives Congress [APC] to the Nigeria Democratic Congress [NDC].

Comr. Ukueku said the process violated constitutional provisions and denied the elected representative the fundamental right to a fair hearing. “This is not constitutional housekeeping. It is 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,” he stated.

He noted that other concerned leaders have also condemned the action in similar terms, describing it as unconstitutional and politically motivated.

Questioning the legal basis, Comr. Ukueku said the House relied on Section 109(1)(g) of the Constitution. “Section 109(1)(g) does not automatically apply where a defection results 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 right to a fair hearing would not have produced the House’s predetermined outcome,” he said.

He added that the development is not without precedent in Delta politics. “Even when the governor was in the PDP, a similar action was taken against a serving member from Ughelli North Constituency I, Hon. Matthew Omonade,” he recalled.

Comr. Ukueku further argued that mandates cannot be withdrawn without due process.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,” he said.

He stressed that Nigeria’s democracy guarantees freedom of association. “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. The people of Udu Local Government Area cannot be cowed by it. They elected a representative, and they now stand without one,” he added.

Comr. Ukueku therefore called on the Delta State House of Assembly to reverse the declaration immediately 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 and premeditated decision,” he said.

Speaking on the 2027 elections, Comr. Ukueku said the APC would continue to struggle in Ughelli South LGA, particularly in Ewu Kingdom.

“There is nothing to show for APC in Ughelli South. The people of Ewu Urhobo Kingdom are being marginalized in this current APC administration. Ewu Kingdom has benefited nothing under the present government, except the Orere Bridge in the former Governor Okowa’s Bishop Community, which the present administration recently completed.

“The people of Uto-Ewu, which comprises five communities, have no access road, no potable water, no functional health centre, and are grappling with boundary adjustment issues with neighbouring communities without government intervention. There has also not been a single political appointment from these five communities,” he said.

“For these reasons, the APC has failed the people of Uto-Ewu and Ewu Urhobo Kingdom, and the party will continue to fail in Ughelli South, especially in Ewu Kingdom, come 2027,” he concluded.

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