Nuhu Ribadu
Westham Adehor and Mark Ikpuri, two Urhobo leaders from Warri South LGA of Delta state, have petitioned the office of the national security adviser (NSA) ahead of a scheduled meeting over the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) ward delineation.
The meeting, expected to be held on Monday, was convened by Nuhu Ribadu, the NSA, to address protests surrounding the contentious field report submitted by INEC.
In a petition dated May 15, the duo said the exclusion of Urhobo stakeholders from the meeting was unjustified.
They said they had consistently represented the Urhobos of Warri South at previous INEC stakeholder engagements.
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“We, the undersigned Urhobos of Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State, write to protest our exclusion from the scheduled meeting with the National Security Adviser on the contentious INEC delineation exercise,” the petition read.
“We have been the ones representing the Urhobos of Warri South in all the stakeholder meetings on the invitation of INEC. But since the proposed field report came out from INEC, we found out that it does not reflect the true pictures/position of what was captured in the Urhobo axis.”
The petitioners said they had written several letters to INEC, insisting that “the Ijaws are not part of Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State and the area captured by INEC are Agbarha areas.”
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They said their concerns were clearly stated in a joint press conference on May 2.
“We were surprised that we were excluded from the stakeholders meeting called by the office of the NSA dated the 19th day of May 2025,” the letter added.
“We chose to be granted audience to be part of this meeting for proper representation of our people.”
On April 10, INEC announced that it has not taken a final decision on the delineation of wards in Warri federal constituency.
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“Therefore, contrary to the speculations making the rounds, the Commission is yet to take a final decision on the delineation of Wards in the Warri Federal Constituency,” Sam Olumekun, national commissioner and chairman of the information and voter education committee, said in a statement.
