Warri Federal Constituency: Your report on delineation was written, submitted to you – David Tonwe tackles INEC

Former President of National Association of Itsekiri Students, NAIS, David Utseoritsemofe Tonwe, has slammed the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, saying the report on ward delineation in Warri Federal Constituency, which was on unveiled to stakeholders at Asaba, Friday April 4, was a plan written and submitted to the Commission by Ijaw and Urhobo.

David Tonwe, who made the allegation in an electronic statement sent to Fresh Angle International in the wee hours of today, Friday April 11, declared: “From all that is written in that document and your (INEC) response, I can confirm that, your miracle ward delineation is plan written and submitted to you (INEC) by Ijaw and Urhobo.” 

The ex-Itsekiri students’ leader and former Financial Secretary of National Association of Itsekiri Graduates, NAIG, stated: “Reading INEC’s response to the protest by the Itsekiri over ward delineation in the Warri Federal Constituency, a lot came to my mind that I will be addressing one by one.

“INEC claimed that the purported ward delineation report in circulation is merely a proposal, and not the actual ward structure.

“This made me check the Oxford Dictionary to understand the word "proposal" again. According to the Oxford Dictionary, a proposal is defined as “a formal suggestion or plan.”

David Utseoritsemofe Tonwe

“The next question that comes to mind is this: is the creation of wards a product of suggestion, or a plan?

“I was of the impression before now that ward delineation reports are based on fieldwork, verified data, and factual findings.

“But INEC has once again confirmed that the so-called ward delineation report in circulation is something written and formulated to favor our neighbors. People who originally came to reside among the Itsekiri as fishermen and farmers.

“If not, how can INEC come up with something that doesn’t exist in reality?

“It is on record — confirmed by a competent court — that the Ijaw have no legal claim to any place in Warri South. Former Governor Chief James Ibori even paid them compensation to relocate from the NPA waterside areas. That same area that was barred by court from being claimed by the Ijaw, yet INEC, the miracle worker, proposed three wards for the Ijaw in that location?

“If INEC can perform the miracle of bringing into existence something that legally and physically does not exist — something that even a court order prohibits from being imagined — then nothing surprises me anymore.

“What happened in Warri South-West and Warri North is not shocking to me. INEC, the miracle worker for the Ijaw and Urhobo in Warri South, continued this imaginary creation in Warri South-West and Warri North — all to fulfill a dream that will only exists in fiction.

“On court order, Itsekiri are not law breakers, so we have no issues on obeying court order by INEC. But I wish to ask what happened to the existing court order that restricted INEC from recognizing 12 wards in Warri South — a judgment they even swore to obey and which required a reversion to the original 10 wards? Or is that particular court order from Benin Republic — and therefore not recognized under Nigerian law?

“What about the Supreme Court judgment that declared Okerenghigho belongs to the Itsekiri of Omadino, and that the Maritime University should bear the name Okerenghigho, not Okerenkoko? Was that judgment ever obeyed by the Nigerian government?

“When the Itsekiri got court judgments in our favor, they are disregarded or treated as worthless. But when our tenants come with any form of court order, the government and its agencies scramble to obey them with speed.

“On this note, the federal government under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR), the Delta State Government, under Rt. Hon. (Elder) Sheriff Francis Orohwedor Oborevwori (JP), and the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu. Should take note that,  all Itsekiri, both at home and abroad, will resist this miracle ward delineation by INEC. Even if only one Itsekiri person is left, that person — alongside our ancestors and unborn children — will fight this to the very end.”

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