Scores of Itsekiri in Delta State, on Monday, took to the streets of Warri to demand fairness and equity ahead of the planned delimitation of Wards across Warri South, Warri North and Warri South-West local government areas.
Armed with placards with varying inscriptions such as “INEC must obey the Nigerian constitution,” and “INEC must dismantle the illegal 12 wards before delineation,” denouncing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and its lopsided committee set up to carry out the exercise, the protesters chanted folkloric tunes to call for a halt of the exercise.
Addressing journalists during the protest, a legal practitioner,
Fabious Demide Atie, said if INEC must carry out the delineation, the body must first obey the court judgement that reverted the 12 wards in Warri South to 10 wards.
“We’re showcasing our annoyance at INEC over refusal over the years to obey court judgement which they did not appeal against and which subsists, until they are now coming with a new position to delineate wards in only the three Warri local government areas of Delta State.
“Equity demands that you give the right of others to others and take what is yours. Whereby you’re going against the rights of others, you’re denying them their rights, then there can’t be justice and equity.
“Our cry to INEC over the years to obey court orders has fallen into deaf ears.
“In this protest, we’re telling the world how we the Itsekiri people are being oppressed; how INEC has taken a position against a particular tribe to favour others.
ALSO READ:PFN moves to address food insecurity
“Those chosen to do the delimitation and delineation of wards are people of vested interest from the other tribes. We say no to the Management/Delimitation Team or Committee to delineate Warri Federal Constituency headed by Professor Rhoda Gumus, who’s an Ijaw man. So we can’t trust the outcome of such a process.
“We’re saying that it’s not fair and right and against equity and justice to take somebody who’s also interested in creating wards to the favour of his people to co-ordinate the process.
“INEC should remove such vested interest in people from the delimitation team.
“We’re asking that the right thing should be done to avert further crises that could degenerate into more serious issues.
“INEC should call all the stakeholders to a roundtable and take the first issue after the other to do justice to the case, then we’d go home and dry,” Atie declared.
President, Itsekiri National Youths Council (INYC), Godwin Utiemyin, who also addressed journalists during the protest, called on INEC to wait for a federal ward delineation exercise before embarking on the exercise in the three Warris.
He said: “Delineation works according to the constitution. We have 774 wards in the country.
“Our neighbours deemed it fit to target us and requested delineation of the three Warri local government areas. They didn’t go to request such where they come from in Ughelli, Bayelsa etc.
“But they have a mission and that’s why we’re protesting against the delineation that INEC wants to carry out. Once INEC goes ahead with this delineation, they’d mobilise their brothers Ughelli, Bayelsa and Rivers to come and be part of the population here whereby INEC will not get the right figures.
“At the end of the day during the election period, those people would become ghosts because they’d remain in their areas.
“So, we’re appealing to INEC to wait for a federal ward delineation before embarking on the exercise in the three Warris.”
Chief Omolubi Newuwumi, who’s a former commissioner of the state, urged INEC to “first implement the first judgement which says it should revert 12 wards to 10 wards.
According to him, “If we allow INEC to go on with this exercise, it means the exercise will be coordinated on illegal wards. INEC is claiming that they’re obeying the court ruling. But there’s been a ruling since 1997 which they had not obeyed. Why the selection of which judgement to obey?
“That’s why we Itsekiri felt oppressed. We don’t want to start building on illegality. They should first reverse the Warri South 12 wards to 10 wards so that the delimitation exercise can take off from that 10 wards
rather than 12 wards.
“If they refused to listen to us, then INEC wants us to start building ourselves like the Israelites and that means that one day we’d come back and correct the injustice.”
