The Alliance of Yoruba Democratic Movements (AYDM) has urged President Bola Tinubu to intervene in the Independent national Electoral Commission’s (INEC) proposed ward delineation exercise in Warri Federal Constituency of Delta State to ensure justice and fair play for Itsekiri people.
Speaking at a press conference in Lagos on Tuesday, the convener of the group, Popoola Ajayi, said the President should set up Commission of Inquiry to investigate INEC’s delineation activities in Warri Federal Constituency.
Ajayi said the commission would ascertain why INEC merged several wards in the Itsekiri Area to become one while multiplying areas with low registration in the Urhobo and Ijaw enclaves.
He said: “We call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, to immediately intervene to ensure justice and fair play for Itsekiri people. This is as simple as obeying all the Supreme Court decisions for the past 50 years won by Itsekiri.
“To set up a Commission of Inquiry to investigate INEC’s delineation activities in Warri Federal Constituency to ascertain why INEC merged several wards in Itsekiri Area to become one while multiplying areas with low registration in the Urhobo and Ijaw enclave.
“Whether INEC have the constitutional powers to create new communities or superimpose illegal names on existing Itsekiri communities, and whether INEC have the discretion to obey my court judgement while disobeying another.
“We are calling on Mr. President to direct INEC to return to the original 13 ward defunct Warri Local Government Area and see same as the basis upon which delineation can be carried out in Warri Federal Constituency.”
Ajayi said the intervention of the President would prevent a major crisis in the Niger Delta that may drag the entire Yoruba Nation into the crisis. “We believe this can be avoided and should be avoided by all means, hence our decision to speak out.
“Unfortunately, if the historic injustice is not addressed, the history of violence may repeat itself. We hope this will not happen, given the various forms of crisis Nigeria is facing at the moment. We are here to give early warning signals to prevent another major crisis in the Niger Delta.
“The time to act is now. Let us recall that the Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, and Tiv, like every other ethnic nationality in Nigeria, have their traditional homeland with their various administrative structure with which they entered into the marriage of the 1914 amalgamation.
“How would any of these ethnic groups feel if wards are being created in their ancestral land in the name of people who came to settle on their land? How responsible would it be to have Oyo Ward in Sokoto, or Ibadan Ward in Enugu or Zamfara Ward in Enugu just because there are a few indigenes of Zamfara in Enugu city?
“There is no gainsaying the fact that the Warri homeland is entirely Itsekiri’s. Before the 1914 amalgamation, the ltsekiri people of Warri kingdom, like their Yoruba brothers, already had a well-established administrative structure, headed by the Olu of Warri, with which they conveniently conducted their judicial, legislative and executive functions.
“The defunct Warri Local Government, Itsekiri homeland, was what gave birth to the three Warri local councils of today, viz, Warri South, Warri North and Warri South-West. Another way of saying that in the evolutionary account of time, what was not there in the Warri kingdom (Itsekiri homeland) before and post the 1914 amalgamation cannot now be reckoned with.”