Eric Omare: A Professional Liar and Twister of Facts

Recent comments and media interventions by Barr. Eric Omare on the Warri delineation matter, particularly as it concerns Warri South West Constituency, are filled with distortions, selective interpretation of facts, and deliberate attempts to mislead the public.

His repeated efforts to twist the issues surrounding the Supreme Court judgment and INEC's delineation exercise deserve a clear response.

The Supreme Court judgment of 2022/2023 was straightforward. The Court ordered INEC to conduct a fresh delineation of wards and polling units in Warri South, Warri North, and Warri South West Local Government Areas. At no point did the Supreme Court order INEC to create new federal constituencies or invent fresh political structures outside the existing Warri Federal Constituency with fraudulent figures or compromise field work where anomaly, ficticious and expansion tendency were supported.

Warri Federal Constituency already consists of Warri South, Warri North, and Warri South West LGAs. Therefore, the Court's directive was simply to redraw and properly delineate wards and polling units within the existing framework based on verifiable population, geography, accessibility, and other accepted delineation criteria using the INEC guidelines. 

Contrary to the misleading narrative being promoted by Barr. Eric Omare, the Supreme Court did not authorize the reproduction of the same flawed and disputed delineation exercise that has generated controversy for years. The recent delineation process was challenged because it allegedly allocated ward numbers that did not reflect actual population realities. 

A major question that remains unanswered now is why the ward figures continue to change without any publicly presented field verification. In Warri South West, particularly, the figures have shifted repeatedly:

- Earlier disputed proposal: Itsekiri 5 wards, Ijaw 14 wards.

- Subsequent recommendation: Itsekiri 7 wards, Ijaw 13 wards.

If the exercise is genuinely based on scientific fieldwork, population data, geographic realities, and community mapping, why do the figures continue to fluctuate? Nigerians are entitled to ask whether these numbers are the product of actual field verification or mere office calculations.

Fresh delineation means fresh fieldwork. It requires physical verification, population assessment, GPS mapping, community engagement, accessibility studies, and transparent public hearings. It does not mean adjusting figures from offices in Abuja or Asaba without presenting the underlying data to affected stakeholders.

Another critical issue ignored by Barr. Eric Omare is that INEC must comply with all relevant judicial pronouncements relating to the Warri delineation matter. The Commission cannot selectively rely on one judgment while disregarding others. Justice, fairness, and equity demand that every applicable court decision be harmonized in arriving at a sustainable solution.

The present 13-to-7 ward recommendation in Warri South West remains questionable because there is no publicly available evidence demonstrating that it emerged from a comprehensive, transparent, and verifiable field exercise. Every ward gained or lost carries significant implications for political representation, polling units, resource allocation, and democratic participation for generations to come.

The only credible path forward is for INEC to return to the field. A genuine fresh delineation should involve door-to-door verification, modern mapping technology, public consultations, and full transparency. Anything short of that will continue to attract legitimate objections from stakeholders.

Furthermore, INEC should avoid treating Warri constituencies in isolation from the broader national delineation process. Any exercise conducted in Warri must align with the standards, methodology, and principles that will apply across the country during national delineation. Failure to do so risks creating inconsistencies that could trigger further disputes and litigation.

The people of Warri South West and the entire Warri Federal Constituency deserve a delineation exercise built on facts, transparency, justice, and verifiable fieldwork—not shifting figures, assumptions, and political manipulation.

No amount of media propaganda or deliberate twisting of facts can change the simple truth: the Supreme Court ordered a fresh delineation, not the recycling of disputed structures and not the invention of new constituencies.

Conclusively,  The Itsekiri by wards and population remains the most populated in Warri South West, amounting to 65 percent while our ilaje brothers 10 percent where the itsekiri have over 60 communities and the ijaws 14 communities to produce  25 percent population. 

Author:

Bawo Wawe

Team EOE Coordinator

×