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By Emmanuel Oloniruha

A group of constituents from Itsekiri community in Delta, known as Warri Reclamation Trust, has called on INEC to jettison its report on the proposed delineation of Warri Federal Constituency which was presented to stakeholders on April 4.

The group’s Convener, Mrs Tsaye Mene, while presenting a petition to INEC at the commission’s headquarters on Monday in Abuja, described the document as fraudulent and that it must not be allowed to scale through.

Mene urged INEC to do proper job on the matter, in line with the Supreme Court judgment, before the implementation of any delineation in the constituency.

She said that the group had carried out a thorough analysis of the document presented by INEC and discovered some distortion of facts on the units and wards proposed for the federal constituency by INEC.

Mene said it was discovered that communities from Edo and Ondo states were imported into Warri North to create more wards for the Ijaws.

She also alleged that communities from other local government areas, such as Ughelli South, Udu and Burutu were erroneously imported into Warri South-West Local Government Area to create more wards for the Ijaws.

Mene also claimed that fictitious communities were created, while some Itsekiri communities were renamed with Ijaw names in favour of the ijaws to have more wards against the Itsekiris.

Mene said that all these were being done in spite court judgements, up to the supreme supreme, all of which declared Itsekiris as landlords and historical owners of all the lands in Warri federal constituency.

Mr Bright Omaghomi, Co-Convener of the group, said that going by the evidence uncovered from the report, it showed that INEC did not do diligent work, hence the report should be jettisoned in its entirety.

Omaghomi syated that the document also claimed that the Ijaws had more population than the itshekiris, against the 2006 population census report.

He said that INEC lacked the power to create constituency and rename communities or give them something that belonged to Itsekiri to the Ijaws.

“If INEC is going to delineate, it should do so in accordance with the rule of law. They should delineate according to their own guidelines.

“INEC must also follow the supreme court as far as land ownership in Warrington federal constituency is concerned.

“This document that has been submitted is unacceptable. We are asking INEC to withdraw this document and do the proper thing,” he said.

Omaghomi also called on the commission to investigate and prosecute its staff members who participated in the exercise.

He also alleged said that the Resident Electoral Commission in the state was an interested party in the exercise, being of Ijaw ethnic nationality.

The News Agency of Nigeria NAN reports that the the protesters displayed placards with various inscriptions, such as “Address our petition before final delineation report, in line with supreme court judgment” and “Discard the fraudulent proposed ward delineation document in Warri federal constituency.”

Others included: Edo and Ondo states, Udu, Ughelli South, Burutu and Bomadi LGAs not part of Warri federal constituency and should be expunged from the delineation report” and “INEC cannot assume voting strength and population outside the voters registered and last census data.”

Receiving the petition, an INEC National Commissioner, Abdullahi Zuru, commended the peaceful conduct of the protesters.

Zuru said that the commission would look into the evidence of errors allegedly committed by INEC.

He said that the commission, in collaboration with relevant authorities, was already looking into the concerns raised in the petition submitted by the group to the commission on June 5.

“if there is an additional evidence, you should bring it out so that we will know these are additional documents; otherwise, if it is that same document that you have submitted and acknowledged by us, we are working on them,” he said.

Zuru assured the protesters that the commission would communicate with them at the appropriate time. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by ‘Wale Sadeeq

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