The office of former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, has issued a blistering response to Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State, accusing the Governor of inadvertently confirming his role in the unconstitutional removal of Hon. Collins Egbetamah from the Delta State House of Assembly.
The controversy began on June 30, 2026, when the Delta State House of Assembly declared the seat of Hon. Egbetamah, who represents Udu State Constituency, vacant, citing Section 109(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution following his defection from the All Progressives Congress. Senator Omo-Agege subsequently posted a video on his Facebook page condemning the removal as unconstitutional, triggering a sharp response from Governor Oborevwori’s Senior Special Assistant on Media, Ossai Ovie Success, who demanded that the former Senate Deputy President withdraw the video and apologise to the House of Assembly.
But in a press statement issued on July 8, 2026, signed by Godwin Anaughe, Special Adviser on Strategy and Communications to Senator Omo-Agege, the former Deputy President’s office turned the Governor’s intervention against him, arguing that it answered the central question surrounding the removal.
“The removal of Hon. Collins Egbetamah was an internal matter of the Delta State House of Assembly — a separate arm of government with its own leadership and spokespersons,” the statement read. “The Speaker had already spoken. There was no basis for Government House to intervene. Yet it did. In doing so, the administration has answered the question the people of Udu have asked since June 30, 2026: who ordered this?”
The statement argued that the Governor’s decision to publicly defend the removal through his media aide confirmed that the House of Assembly did not act of its own constitutional accord but rather executed a political directive from Government House in Asaba. “With that statement, the administration has placed its fingerprints permanently on this unconstitutional act,” the statement declared.
The response also shed new light on what it described as Hon. Egbetamah’s sustained persecution before his eventual removal. According to the statement, before Governor Oborevwori defected to the APC, Hon. Egbetamah had endured two full years inside the House without salary, without allowances, and without constituency project funds. “His crime? Loyalty. He refused to betray the APC when it was politically convenient to do so. He stood his ground, and the House made him pay for it every single day,” the statement said. “The same government that financially starved him for two years then removed him without a hearing in a single afternoon. These are not separate acts. They are chapters in the same story of sustained political persecution.”
On the constitutional argument, Senator Omo-Agege’s office rejected the Governor’s reliance on Section 109(1)(g) as a complete answer to the controversy, insisting that the provision must be read alongside Section 36 of the same Constitution, which guarantees every Nigerian the right to fair hearing. “Even where a constitutional provision mandates a consequence, the affected person must first be heard,” the statement argued, citing consistent Supreme Court decisions on the matter. “Hon. Egbetamah was not heard. He was given no notice. He was denied the opportunity to invoke the constitutional exception for party division. The House convened, voted by voice, and declared his seat vacant in a single sitting.”
The statement pointedly challenged the Governor’s characterisation of the process as settled law. “If this was truly settled constitutional law, why the single sitting? Why the voice vote? Why no prior notice? Settled law does not require haste. Political instruction does.”
Senator Omo-Agege’s office also challenged the Governor to name a single inaccuracy in the video that triggered this exchange. “The video stated that Hon. Egbetamah was denied a fair hearing — true. That the removal was rushed and politically motivated — the timeline proves it. That the people of Udu have been left without representation — that is the direct and documented consequence of what the House did,” the statement said. “Every statement is accurate. If the Governor believes otherwise, he is invited to identify the specific inaccuracy. We are waiting.”
The statement also took aim at what it described as the Governor’s attempt to deflect from the constitutional argument by listing infrastructure achievements. While acknowledging that the Oborevwori administration had constructed roads, bridges, and equipped hospitals, Senator Omo-Agege’s office argued that these achievements must be measured against the over three trillion naira in federal allocations Delta State has received during the Governor’s tenure. “The roads, bridges, and dialysis machines funded by three trillion naira are not acts of generosity — they are just the bare minimum we should expect,” the statement said, adding that a full accounting of how those resources had been applied would be demanded in due course.
On the Governor’s suggestion that Senator Omo-Agege’s intervention on behalf of Hon. Egbetamah could cost the former Deputy Senate President the 2027 Delta Central Senatorial election, the statement was dismissive. “Senator Omo-Agege survived an unconstitutional attempt to remove him from his own Senate seat. The judiciary held the line then. He stood firm then. He is standing firm now. He does not calculate the political cost of speaking up for people whose constitutional rights have been violated,” it said.
The statement rejected all three of the Governor’s demands. It said Senator Omo-Agege would not withdraw the video, that his respect for the House of Assembly was precisely why he held it to the constitutional standard it abandoned on June 30, and that raising constitutional rights, democratic mandates, and due process was itself the very definition of issue-based politics.
“The people of Udu lost their representative not because a court convicted him, not because they recalled him, and not because he resigned,” the statement concluded. “They lost him because a House of Assembly, acting on orders from Asaba, decided in a single afternoon that their voice did not matter. The Governor’s intervention has told us who gave those orders.”
Senator Omo-Agege’s office said the matter would be pursued in court, expressing confidence that the Constitution would be upheld. “Udu is not a conquered territory. Its mandate is sacred. And Senator Ovie Omo-Agege will not be bullied into abandoning its people,” the statement said.
