Politics
THE Leaders of Itsekiri ethnic group in Delta, has urged the Federal Government to immediately investigate the technical execution and conduct of the electoral wards delineation in the Warri Federal Constituency by INEC.
The Itsekiri leaders made the call at a news conference held at Ubeji Community in Warri South Local Government Area of the state on Thursday.
A statement jointly signed by Chief Edward Ekpoko, Prince Yemi Emiko, Mr Alex Eyengho, Chief Robinson Ariyo, Sir A.S. Mene and others, was read to the media.
The leaders urged INEC not to rely on the disputed fieldwork and flawed Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping data for the delineation , pending an independent and transparent technical verification.
They urged all stakeholders to eschew inflammatory rhetorics and pursue peaceful and lawful democratic engagement.
The Itsekiri leaders also urged the security and oversight institutions to closely monitor the process to ensure transparency, accountability and and total compliance with constitutional orders.
They vehemently rejected INEC’s final report on the wards delineation exercise and charged the commission to increase the Itsekiri wards in Warri North from six to 12 and the Ijaw wards from four to eight.
They also called for the same increment in the Warri South-West Local Government Area.
The Itsekiri leaders said: “Though, we fully support the Supreme Court judgment which directed INEC to conduct a fresh delineation exercise in Warri South, Warri South-West and Warri North Local Government Areas, we cannot accept a defective implementation process.
“We firmly reject the proposed delineation scheme released by the INEC on May 20.
“The exercise violates explicit constitutional provisions, disregards the Electoral Act 2026 (as amended), breaches INEC’s operational Guidelines and relies on disputed fieldwork.
“From the onset, we stated that the Itsekiri people are not opposed to lawful electoral reforms, democratic inclusion or constitutional compliance.”
They said that the Apex Court’s judgement did not declare the existing 2023 voter register valid, insisting that declaring verifiable data from that 2023 general elections in favour of manufactured mapping undermined public confidence.
According to them, delineation must be based on verifiable registered voter strength, not arbitrary spatial allocation of INEC created polling units and wards without valid registered voters, thereby ignoring its guidelines.
“INEC lumped massive clusters of Itsekiri voters into fewer wards, while artificially inflating smaller voting populations elsewhere to yield more wards.”
The leaders, while commending INEC for the proposed creation of additional State Constituency and one Federal Constituency from the Warri Federal Constituency, said that the implementation must be flawless and lawful.
They urged all parties involved in the delineation process to respect the rule of law in order to maintain regional stability.
The News Agency of. Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the Ijaw and Urhobo people in Warri had on Monday, addressed a news conference at Ogbe-Ijoh Community, where they also urged INEC to urgently implement its final reports on the wards delineation.(NAN)
F.O
Tags: INEC ward delineation Itsekiri leaders Seek Fg’ intervention