By Omeiza Ajayi
ABUJA: Itsekiri youths on Tuesday staged a protest at the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC in Abuja, demanding the immediate reversal and outright discarding of a ward delineation proposal for the Warri Federal Constituency.
They described the development as fraudulent, provocative and a deliberate plot to dispossess the Itsekiri people of their ancestral land.
The protest, led by the Ugbarajo Itsekiri Youths UIY in collaboration with other Itsekiri youth bodies, saw demonstrators carrying placards and banners calling for justice, fairness and respect for historical boundaries.
Addressing INEC officials during the protest, President of the Ugbarajo Itsekiri Youths, Comrade Joseph Okotie, said the demonstration was a peaceful reminder aimed at drawing national attention to what he described as a systematic attempt to undermine the territorial integrity and political existence of the Itsekiri people.
“This exercise was not done in good faith. It was deliberately manipulated to steal Itsekiri land and alter our political representation. We are saying clearly that Itsekiri people will not accept injustice disguised as electoral reform,” Okotie said.
He accused unnamed powerful interests of deliberately manipulating the ward delineation process to favour other groups at the expense of Itsekiri communities, insisting that the exercise failed to follow due process, historical realities and constitutional provisions guiding electoral boundary adjustments.
The youths also accused INEC of maintaining prolonged silence despite several petitions submitted since April 2005 challenging the disputed proposal.
According to them, the objections were backed by documentary and pictorial evidence, including data analysis and geographic coordinates, which allegedly showed wrong locations, incorrect naming of communities and the reallocation of Itsekiri lands to non-Itsekiri settlements.
One of the youth leaders said, “We have done pictorial evidence, data analysis of all coordinates so submitted in that proposal, depicting wrong locations, wrong naming and a deliberate attempt to fragment our communities and cede our land to tenants living on our land.”
They further alleged that some of the coordinates cited in the proposal pointed to rivers, deep forests and even locations outside the Warri Federal Constituency, which they said showed that INEC “went out of bounds.”
The protesters maintained that the scale of the alleged irregularities ruled out the possibility of oversight, insisting that “over 90 per cent of that document is fraudulent and must be discarded in its entirety.”
The youths also alleged attempts by highly placed individuals to influence the commission.
“It is not possible that INEC, with all its professionals who went on field, would come up with this kind of obvious fraud without external influence,” one of the speakers said, adding that “some persons who are very highly placed are trying to influence INEC”, they stated.
Clarifying their position, the protesters said they were not opposed to the Supreme Court judgment directing INEC to carry out ward delineation in the Warri Federal Constituency.
“INEC has obeyed the Supreme Court judgment to delineate. It is the proposal that we are criticizing. You cannot implement an illegality,” the youth leader stated.
They also expressed disappointment that the emergence of a new INEC chairman had not translated into engagement with affected communities, despite the resubmission of their petitions. “We have resubmitted the same documents to the new chairman of INEC. Why is INEC silent?” one of the protesters asked.
While reaffirming their commitment to peaceful advocacy and lawful engagement, the Itsekiri youths called on INEC to immediately suspend and discard the disputed ward delineation and commence a fresh, transparent and inclusive process that respects historical boundaries.
They warned that continued silence could heighten tensions in the Warri area, stressing that peace could only be sustained on the basis of justice and fairness.
“We believe in peace, but peace must be built on justice. Ignoring our legitimate grievances will only deepen mistrust,” the group said, adding that the Itsekiri people remain resolute in defending their land, identity and political rights within the Nigerian state.
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