NDC Blasts Assembly for Sacking Lawmaker Egbetanah, Begs INEC to Ignore the Order

The battle lines have been drawn between Nigeria’s newest political force and legislative leaders after the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) launched a fierce counter-attack against the controversial decision to declare Hon. Egbetanah’s legislative seat vacant.

The brewing constitutional crisis has moved from the floor of the parliament straight to the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission. In a strongly worded national address, the NDC high command made it clear that they view the sudden ouster of Egbetanah as a desperate attempt by the ruling party to use state institutions to punish lawmakers who choose to exercise their freedom of political association.

The root of the political drama trace back to Egbetanah’s recent high-profile decision to switch alignments and join the rapidly expanding NDC movement. Almost immediately after the switch, the leadership of the assembly invoked constitutional provisions regarding carpet-crossing, moving swiftly to strip the lawmaker of his seat and declaring his constituency unrepresented.

However, the NDC is fighting back with a rigorous legal argument, warning that the assembly’s leadership has overstepped its statutory boundaries. The opposition maintains that under the current legal framework, a legislative speaker cannot declare a member’s seat vacant on a whim—especially when the defection is tied to ongoing internal party divisions or is currently being challenged in a court of law.

“What we are witnessing is a dangerous abuse of legislative power aimed entirely at choking out the opposition,” a senior NDC legal consultant stated during a media briefing. “The law is clear: a speaker is not a judge. You cannot unilaterally sack a lawmaker while the legal merits of his political alignment are still being sorted out by the courts. We are officially calling on INEC to stand firm as an independent umpire, ignore this illegal declaration from the assembly, and refuse to waste public funds on a highly compromised by-election.”

The strategic appeal puts massive pressure on INEC’s top leadership. The electoral commission now finds itself trapped between a formal notification of a vacancy from a legislative house and an aggressive legal warning from a major opposition block demanding that the status quo be maintained until the judiciary weighs in.

Political analysts warn that if INEC rushes to organize a fresh election to replace Egbetanah, it could set a dangerous precedent where ruling party majorities can systematically eliminate rival politicians who change camps. With legal teams on both sides currently fine-tuning their court papers, the unfolding drama promises to serve as a major test for the independence of the electoral body and the resilience of the country’s multi-party democracy ahead of the next general election cycle.