UIY to NSA, Security Agencies: Step in before INEC's bias, triggers avoidable catastrophe

Ugbarajo Itsekiri Youths UIY, Warri South Zone, has called on the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and security agencies, to step in before “INEC's bias” on the proposed unit, ward and constituency delineation of Warri Federal Constituency, triggers “an avoidable catastrophe in a region (Warri and parts of Niger Delta) that has bled far too much in the past.”

The Itsekiri youth organization, stated that INEC must halt the perceived injustice as it relates to the proposed delineation, demanding an immediate and transparent review of what they called provocative delineation map.

The Secretary of UIY, Warri South Zone, Eboma Tuoyo, who made the call in Warri, Delta State, Friday June 5, during a press conference, said the Delta State Government, must wake up and stop standing by as a detached observer, “while the indigenous people of Warri are politically castrated.”

Complete text of the presser, as signed by the Chairman, UIY Warri South Zone, Amanoritsewor Moses and Secretary, UIY Warri South Zone, Eboma Tuoyo, reads thus:

UIY Warri South Zone Rejects and Condemns INEC's Fraudulent Warri Federal Constituency Delineation Report (Warri South LGA) and Frowns Against Government Induced Systemic Oppression and Marginalization of Itsekiri's in Warri

Issued By:

The leadership and members of Ugbarajo Itsekiri Youths (UIY) Warri South Zone

Venue: Warri, Delta State

We stand in solidarity under the national leadership of Ugbarajo Itsekiri Youths UIY National President Comr. Joseph Okotie and other National executives today with a heavy hearts, but with an unyielding resolve. Ugbarajo Itsekiri Youths Warri South Zone has called this press briefing to complement other Itsekiri's both at home and in diaspora to express our displeasure against this unimaginable injustice and administrative warfare targeted at the very survival of the Itsekiri people especially in Warri South LGA of Delta State. In our lifetime as youths, we are experiencing an ugly situation and a calculated and systemic attempt by the Independent  National Electoral Commission (INEC), with the quiet complicity of the Delta Sta Government, and the Federal Government to politically dispossess, emotionally fracture, are geographically erase the Itsekiri people from our ancestral home in Warri South Loc Government Area of Delta State.

It is imperative to first and foremost emphasize that we do not oppose the Supreme Cour mandate for delineation in Warri Federal Constituency (Warri south). What we firmly reject, condemn and what breaks our hearts, is how a Supreme court order is being twisted and used a weapon of oppression by INEC in connivance with Ijaws and Urhobo's to politically annihilate Itsekiri's in Warri South. We are shouting "No!" to a deeply flawed delineation process report that seeks to forcefully tear away our historical lands, strip us of our polling units, hand our political representation over to external aggressors.

In Warri South Local Government Area, there is no single Ijaw community, the main market falsely renamed as Ogbe Ijaw market seats on the land of Pessu community, Okere community and Odion community, infact the three wards fraudulently named after the ljaw was carved from Pessu ward, GRA ward and Okere ward, which the boundary is at the Ecobank in the Main market axis. INEC in their proposal carved out Itsekiri Community lands, created non-existent ljaw Communities, through them and created three illegal wards in the proposal. This illegality was vividly reflected in the delineation report by INEC.

How much more must the Itsekiri people endure in their own land? It is a painful irony that hospitable nature of the Itsekiri nation has been taken for foolishness. Today, we look at like Dore Numa Market, Robert Road, GRA renamed fraudulently as Bolouma, Ewein, Ogbe-Ijaw Warri Urban, lands deeply soaked in the sweat and history of our Itsekiri ancestors and we see an electoral umpire trying to gift them away to the Ogbe Ijaw people of Warri South-West, to have an illegal presence in Warri South Local Government.

The presence of the ljaws in these specific urban spaces is not a product of historical ownership, it is a painful scar from the Warri crisis (1997-2003). Itsekiri lands became refugee camps for migrating populations from Bayelsa, Bomadi, and Patani. We opened our gates in times of trouble, only for our kindness to be returned with a bitter attempt to permanently grab our land. Unfortunately, INEC is using the delineation as a means to engage in land grabbing of Itsekiri lands in Warri South.

It's a matter of fact that the government knows the truth. Under former Governor Chief James Onanefe Ibori, the Delta State Government paid massive financial compensations to these Ijaw settlers for the explicit purpose of relocation back to their genuine states and communities of origin. They took the money, but they refused to leave.

In another display of lawlessness, the administration of Dr. Emmanuel Ewetan Uduaghan acquired a large portion of the same land to build a State Tourist Park. The illegal occupiers chose to vandalize the security fences erected by the State Government. Today, they live on stolen government property, and instead of being evicted, INEC is preparing to reward their lawlessness with political autonomy and Itsekiri land.

The continuous oppression of the Itsekiri nation is even more heartbreaking, because it flies directly in the face of absolute legal truths. Since, far back 1964, a Supreme Court barred the Ijaws from laying claims to land in Warri South LGA INEC bluntly disobeyed this court judgment by creating nonexistent Ijaw communities and wards in Warri South. In another instance a Federal High Court in 2003 created a ten ward structure for Warri South I.e Itsekiri 8 Wards, while Urhobo 2 Wards, making it a total of 10 legal Wards in Warri South. INEC oppressively circumvented that judgment by refusing to implement the 10 Ward Structure in Warri South. For generations, our fathers fought in the highest courts of the land to protect our borders, and they won. The judiciary has consistently stated that Ijaw settlers have zero land ownership claims in Warri Urban and Warri South LGA and that Warri Federal Constituency is the ancestral homeland of the Itsekiri people.

We point INEC and the Delta State Government to the sacred legal victories they are currently trying to spit on:

(a) Suit No. W/148/56

Chief Isuokumo Oloiki and Others v. Itsekiri Communal Land Trustees and Another.

When Ijaw settlers tried to use the courts to claim vast portions of Warri Township, their claims collapsed under the weight of historical truth, and the case was abandoned.

(b) Suit No. SC/450/65

The Supreme Court of Nigeria delivered a landmark judgment that forever sealed the territorial realities and land ownership rights within the Warri Division in favor of the Itsekiri.

(c) Suit No. W/277/2012

Chief E. F. Exis & Others v. Governor of Delta State & Others

When external elements tried to forcefully reopen these settled matters, the Honorable Justice Marshall Mukoro didn't mince words. He dismissed their desperate bid, warning that trying to alter what the courts had already settled amounts to:

"Judicial Rascality, Recklessness and an Unconstitutional Voyage."

Why must the lisekiri always have to fight the very institutions meant to protect them? The proposed delineation report is a slap in the face of every Itsekiri soul. It defies logic, it defies geography, and it defies basic human decency. How do you map ancestral territories physically located inside Warri South LGA into Warri South-West LGA for electoral purposes? All because the Ogbe ljaw People wants to illegally have presence in Warri south.

This is not an administrative oversight, it is an intentional act of political violence. It feels like a deliberate plot to dilute our population, weaken our voice, and systematically render the indigenous Itsekiri people minority spectators in their own homeland. The Delta State Government's silence is deafening, and INEC's actions completely shatter any remaining illusion of their neutrality.

We have been pushed to the wall, and we have no further room to retreat. Ugbarajo Itsekiri Youths UIY Warri South Zone on behalf of the grieving and outraged grassroots of the Itsekiri nation, demands immediate redress:

INEC Must Halt This Injustice: We demand an immediate, transparent review of this provocative delineation map. Do not redraw our ancestral boundaries to satisfy political appetites. The Delta State Government Must Wake Up: Stop standing by as a detached observer while the indigenous people of Warri are politically castrated. Protect our land rights, enforce your own laws, and evict illegal trespassers from state-acquired properties. The National Security Adviser (NSA) Must Intervene. This administrative oppression is a ticking time bomb. Security agencies must step in before INEC's bias triggers an avoidable catastrophe in a region that has bled far too much in the past.

To our brothers, sisters, and youths across the Itsekiri Nation, your tears and your anger are justified. We feel the weight of this oppression deeply. But we urge you; do not resort to lawlessness even though we will resist this injustice with the last drop of our blood. Let us channel our pain into an unbreakable, peaceful, and vigilant resistance.

We will fight this in the courts, we will fight this through civil action, and we will protect the heritage of our fathers with every breath in our bodies.

INEC must realize that you cannot build peace on a foundation of theft and oppression. Justice must not only be preached; it must be felt by the people. Let the true, lawful boundaries of Warri stand

Thank you! Long Live the Itsekiri Nation! Justice for Warri South! God Bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria!

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