Women Petition INEC Over Warri Re-delineation, Demand Suspension of Exercise

*Call for fresh, transparent process

Kuni Tyessi in Abuja

The Warri Indigenous Women Forum, has petitioned the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, over an alleged re-delineation exercise which they claim threatens the political survival of the Itsekiri people in Delta State.

The women urged INEC to immediately suspend the exercise, warning that any further step while court cases were still pending could amount to contempt of court and risk destabilising peace in the Niger Delta.

They also appealed to the Federal Government, the United Nations and the international community to intervene, describing the situation as one with grave political and humanitarian implications.

In the petition signed by the Chairperson of the forum, Mrs. Tenumah Alero, the women faulted the re-delineation exercise allegedly carried out under the immediate past INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, saying it violates the fundamental and political rights of the Itsekiri Nation, whose ancestral homeland they insist lies wholly within the Warri Federal Constituency.“It is a historical fact that the lands all around Warri Federal Constituency belong to the Itsekiri Nation, a fact known to the world long before the Amalgamation and Treaty.”They argued that the present dispute cannot be divorced from a longer history of violence and marginalisation faced by the Itsekiri people.

“Since 1999, there has been deliberate and coordinated efforts by our neighbours to exterminate the Itsekiri people of Warri Kingdom, through a well-planned criminal campaign of violence, displacement, and systematic marginalisation,” the petition stated.

According to the petition, investigations into the exercise show that it was fundamentally flawed and designed to achieve political exclusion.

It also accused INEC of ignoring ongoing legal proceedings, including Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CV/443/2025 at the Federal High Court and Appeal No. CA/ABJ/CV/1457/2025 currently before the Court of Appeal in Abuja.

“Any further action by INEC on this matter, amounts to contempt of court and a direct threat to peace and order,” the petition read.

The petition further condemned reports that coordinate points were allegedly fixed in Edo and Ondo states, as well as in parts of Delta State outside the Warri Federal Constituency, to create polling units for non-indigenes and non-residents.

It also relied on a December 2025 judgment of the Court of Appeal, Asaba Division, which affirmed Itsekiri ownership of Ogbe-Ijoh community, insisting that INEC has no legal authority to act contrary to the ruling.

“INEC cannot lawfully create or name a ward in that community contrary to this binding judgment,” the petition read.

“The Federal Government should not allow the attempted ethnic cleansing, wrapped under the guise of re-delineation.”