From Jude Oke, Warri
The Itsekiri ethnic nationality in Delta State has called on the federal government to investigate the technical execution and conduct of the electoral ward delineation in the Warri Federal Constituency.
The leaders of the ethnic group made the call on Wednesday at a press briefing held at the Ubeji Town Hall in Warri South Local Government Area of the state.
The press statement was jointly signed by Chief Edward Ekpoko, Prince Yemi Emiko, Mr Alex Eyengho, Chief Robinson Ariyo and Sir A.S Mene.
Text of the state was read before the attendees by Sir Mene on behalf of the other leaders.
Addressing the people the leaders urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to suspend the reliance on the disputed fieldwork and flawed GIS mapping data pending an independent and transparent technical verification of the processes.
They also urged all stakeholders involved in the exercise to eschew inflammatory rhetorics and pursue peaceful and lawful democratic engagement.
The leaders called on the security and oversight institutions to closely monitor the process to ensure a transparent, accountability and total compliance with constitutional order.
The leaders, while rejecting the INEC’s final report on the delineation exercise, urged the electoral umpire 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.
“Based on electoral voters baseline data from the 2023 general election, each of the six Itsekiri Wards in Warri North and Warri South-West should be multiplied by two as well as the Ijaw four Wards.
“This will now give the following fair and equitable resolution for the whole exercise, thus: Warri North, Itsekiri (12 Wards) and Ijaw (8 Wards).
“Similarly, in Warri South-West, Itsekiri (12 Wards) and Ijaw (8 Wards). This is our irreducible minimum position,” they said.
The leaders emphasised that, though the Itsekiri fully supported 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, they 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 unequivocally that the Itsekiri people are not opposed to lawful electoral reforms, democratic inclusion or constitutional compliance,” they said.
The leaders said that the Apex Court’s judgement did not declare the existing 2023 voter register invalid, insisting that discarding verifiable data from that 2023 general elections in favour of manufactured mapping undermined public confidence.
“Delineation must be based on verifiable registered voter strength, not arbitrary spatial allocation. INEC created polling units and wards without valid registered voters.
“By ignoring it’s guidelines on proportionality, INEC has lumped massive clusters of Itsekiri voters into fewer wards, while artificially inflating smaller voting populations elsewhere to yield more wards,” they said.
The further disclosed that seven polling units were used to create proposed wards like Bolou-Ama and Ewein in Ogbe-Ijoh Warri Urban, while 60 polling units each were used to create wards in Orere and Ugborodo in Warri South-West LGA.
They described the cross-LGA lumping as illegal, stressing that INEC’s mandate was strictly administrative and operational.
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.
“We support the creation of additional state constituencies from the Warri North and Warri South-West Local Government Areas. We also support the creation of additional federal constituency from the present Warri Federal Constituency,” the leaders said.
They said that it was a misleading narrative that others ethnic groups within the Warri Federal Constituency were denied political representation.
According to them, the Urhobo and Ijaw ethnic groups hold significant political offices in the federal constituency.
“This dispute is not about opposing co-existence, the Itsekiri people remain fully committed to peace and mutual rights of all Nigerians,” they said.
The leaders urged all parties involved in the delineation process to respect the rule of law in order to maintain regional stability.