‘Delta Speaker’s Okowa-for-2019 Campaign Degrading’

Omon-Julius Onabu in Asaba

The reported second term campaign for Delta State Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, masterminded by the Speaker, Delta State House of Assembly, Hon. Monday Igbuya, has been described as not only distractive but unbecoming of any legislature worth its salt.

A chieftain of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Delta State, Mr Felix Edemanya, who gave the description in a chat with newsmen in Kwale, Ndokwa East Local Government Area, also alleged that the activities of the state legislators portrayed them as bootlickers of the executive arm, which reduces them to a mere rubber stamp rather than an independent arm of government.

He claimed that “being subservient to the executive arm of government in the state as our lawmakers are clearly doing” was inimical to the tenets of accountability and democracy.

According Edemanya, “The legislators in Delta State have abandoned their primary responsibility of law making and oversight functions to become stooges of the executive.”

The local SDP leader particularly carpeted Hon Igbuya for his premature open campaign for the re-election of Governor Okowa who has barely spent one year in office, saying the Speaker’s leadership style was embarrassing and leaving much to be desired.

“I must say that this current (Delta State) House of Assembly is an embarrassment to the entire Deltans”, Edemanya asserted. “I learnt the other day that the Speaker has already endorsed Governor Okowa for second term. How can a leader of a legislative arm of government debase the arm of government to that extent?”

He warned that except appropriate steps were taken urgently to halt or reverse the trend, “the legislative arm of government in the state would be completely swallowed up”.

Similarly, the SDP chairman in Ndokwa Easto, Ogbuefi Emmanuel Ejeh, noted that the strength of the SDP in Ndokwa had grown remarkably, saying the party could not be matched by either the PDP or the All Progressives Congress (APC), assuring that future elections would attest these claims.

Ejeh said that today, the SDP remained the party to beat in Ndokwa East local government area of the state, saying support for party at the grassroots was growing daily.

Delta House of Assembly Speaker, Hon Igbuya, has repeatedly been reported as saying there was no vacancy at the Government House Asaba kin 2019 as Okowa’s second term was already assured.