INEC’s Proposed Ward Delineation In Warri Threatens Chaos, ONAC Tells Tinubu, INEC

A coalition of Yoruba organizations, under the aegis of the Oodua Nationalist Alliance Coalition (ONAC), has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, urging swift intervention to avert what it describes as an imminent crisis in Delta State and the wider Niger Delta region.

In a statement signed by 25 prominent Yoruba leaders, including Chief Kunle Anjorin, Hakeem Akinwale, and Chief Sanusi Adeuya, ONAC expressed deep concern over what it called a resurgence of tensions between the Ijaw and Itsekiri communities in Warri Federal Constituency. The group warned that the growing unrest could spiral into a full-scale conflict, potentially dragging the Yoruba Nation into a regional crisis.

The Pan Yoruba group said the problem started first with the massive destruction of properties and lives of Itsekiri people in their various communities in their Homeland and it was called the Warri crisis.

“This was closely followed by the arbitrary relocation of the headquarters of Warri South-West from Ogidigben, an Itsekiri community to Ogbe-Ijoh, an ijaw community.”

The group said as if that was not enough, by 1999 when democracy finally crystallized in Nigeria, the Itsekiri Homeland regarded now as the defunct Warri Local Government Area from where the current three Warri Local Government Areas viz: the Warri South Local Government Area, Warri North Local Government Area, and Warri South-West Local Government Area of the now Warri Federal Constituency ended up with ten wards each with the Itsekiris in Warri North and Warri South-West having six wards each while the ijaws were given 4 wards each.

It noted that in Warri South Local Government Area, the Itsekiri had 8 and half wards while the Urhobos had one and half.

“Surprisingly, everyone pretended to have suddenly forgotten that in the defunct Old Warri Local Government Area, from where these three new Warri Local Government Areas were created, Itsekiri were having 10 wards, Ijaws 2 and Urhobo 1. This is in the INEC archive.”

The statement continued, “How INEC concocted this ward ratios from the ijaw 2; Urhobos 1 and Itsekiris 10 wards from the defunct Warri Local Government Area to the new ratio beats the imagination of the best demographers and mathematicians of the world.

As if this was not enough, the two Federal Constituencies of Warri and Warri North Federal Constituencies were reduced to one and the other one moved to the ijaws homeland of Burutu.

No sooner than this was successfully achieved by INEC, INEC again created arbitrarily twelve wards from the original ten wards structure of Warri South Local Government Area. Although, this was immediately challenged by the Itsekiris and normalcy restored by court of competent jurisdiction directing INEC to go back to the ten wards, till date, INEC deliberately refused to obey the court judgement.

The most recent arbitrariness was the passage of a bill by the national assembly to recognize the location where the Maritime University is sited as Okerenkoko an ijaw illegal name as against Okerenghigho, an Itsekiri name pronounced by the supreme Court to be so recognized.

INEC recently murdered sleep in Delta state when they disregarded all the records in their archives and pronouncements from competent courts of jurisdiction in this country by going ahead to make public a proposal for new delineation of wards even against pending court cases and procedures where they completely sold out the Itsekiris homeland to the ijaws.

NNPC have also not helped matters when they through their award of surveillance and security contract and against the Petroleum Industrial Act gave all Itsekiri Homeland to Tantita Security Nig Ltd -a company owned by sworn enemies of the Itsekiris.”

ONAC calls on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu to move swiftly to stem a major crisis that may engulf Delta State and the Niger Delta.