The women of Warri kingdom have staged a protest over the re-delineation exercise carried out by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, under the immediate past Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu.
The women, protesting on at INEC headquarters on the aegis of Indigenous Women Forum, said the re-delineation gravely violates their fundamental and political rights as people of the Itsekiri Nation, whose ancestral homeland lies within the Warri Federal Constituency of Delta State.
The women pointed out that lands all around Warri Federal Constituency belong to Itsekiri Nation long before the Amalgamation and Treaty.
They said that since 1999, there has been deliberate and coordinated efforts by those they described as their neighbours to exterminate the Itsekiri people of Warri Kingdom.
“Our findings revealed that the so called re-delineation exercise and its subsequent report, were tainted with fraud and deliberately designed to exclude and politically annihilate the Itsekiri people.
“The process was conducted in flagrant violation of the rule of law, despite the pendency of Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CV/443/2025 and the ongoing appeal in Appeal No. CA/ABJ/CV/1457/2025 at the Court of Appeal, Abuja. Any further action by INEC on this matter, amounts to contempt of court and a direct threat to peace and order,” a statement read out by the protesting women said.
Speaking further, the chairperson, Tenumah Alero, and secretary, Dr. Ada Edema, said: “We strongly condemn the reported fixing of coordinate points in Edo, Ondo, and several Delta State local government areas ( outside Warri Federal Constituency) to create artificial polling units for non-indigenes and non- residents within Warri Federal Constituency. This is fraudulent, unlawful, and capable of distorting state boundaries and provoking serious conflict.
“We also rely on the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Asaba Division, delivered December 2025 in Appeal No.CA/AS/154/2024, which affirmed Itsekiri ownership of Ogbe-Ijoh community. INEC cannot lawfully create or name a ward in that community contrary to this binding judgment.
“We emphasize that our people have been left without homes, education, or land. Our families have been killed, our schools and houses destroyed, our livelihoods taken away, and we now face an assault on our remaining natural resources. Itsekiri Nation would become the only ethnic nationality in Nigeria without a local government of their own, if the criminality carried out by our ethnic neighbours, in connivance with some INEC Officials, is given any legitimacy. The Federal Government, should not allow the attempted ethnic cleansing, wrapped under the guise of re – delineation.
“In view of the above, we urgently call on the Federal Government of Nigeria, the United Nations, and the international community to intervene and prevent an impending humanitarian catastrophe.
“We demand that INEC suspend the so called re-delineation exercise, obey all court processes, investigate and prosecute the fraud committed against the Itsekiri people, and put an immediate end to this injustice, by carrying out a fresh, independent and transparent ward and unit delineation.”
Continuing, they stressed, “This exercise should be completely jettisoned, arrangement to restore the confidence of indigenous people on the independence status of INEC, a new team be immediately made up of the presidency, United Nations, and international community as independent observers is set up to commence a fresh, transparent and credible delineation exercise.”
The women warned that “INEC should not play the proverbial outreach by pretending that they’re not aware that this exercise is mere fraud and their avalanche in disregarding the office”, adding that “all those involved in this fraud should be sanctioned accordingly”.
“INEC is the creation of the law and accordingly must honour all judicial protocols.
“No ijaws or other interested parties who isn’t indigenous to Warri should be involved in any segment of this fresh delineation exercise,” they added.
‘Land all around Warri belongs to Itsekiri’ – Women protest INEC re-delineation
