Warri Federal Constituency: Lori-Ogbebor petitions Tinubu, rejects ward delineation

Rights activist, Rita Lori-Ogbebor, has rejected the recent ward delineation carried out by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in Warri, stating that the commission did not involve those who owned the land.

She explained that the ancestral land of the Ereku/Ogisi Odion family was allocated to non-natives by INEC during the exercise.

Briefing newsmen yesterday in Lagos, Lori-Ogbebor, who is the Igba of Warri Kingdom, described the ward delineation as an orchestrated plan to take over Warri.

Acting on a Supreme Court judgment of 2022, INEC recently unveiled the proposed delineated wards and polling units in the Warri Federal Constituency, comprising Warri North, Warri South, and Warri South-West Local Government Areas.

However, the exercise has led to outrage over claims that the commission wrongly divided the affected areas into wards for electoral purposes.

Providing historical context into the issue, Lori-Ogbebor traced the ownership of the concerned areas to 1474, when what is now known as Warri was founded as Odion Town by Odion.

She noted that Odion was the first man and town that pre-existed all the other supposed stakeholders.

Her words: “My name is  Rita Lori-Ogbebor, the Igba of Warri Kingdom. I am the great-granddaughter of Ogisi Odion, the founder of all that landmass involved in the recent INEC delineation exercise in Warri Township, Warri-South Local Government.

Following the recent INEC’s ward delineation exercise in the three Warris and, especially Warri South LGA (Local Government Area), our ancestral land was conspiratorially given away by INEC. However, we are not surprised because the exercise was led by an Ijaw leader, Prof. Rhoda Gumus, who heads the Regional Electoral Commission. They are our tenants.

“The INEC Chairman should correct the gross anomaly fostered by the connivance of its Regional Commission to involve the primary stakeholders/owners of the land, that is, the Ereku/Ogisi Family.

“The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, should call Tantita company/Tompolo to order and to immediately remove their flags installed on my family land at Odion, which he purportedly came about and upon by one Godbless Merogun, whose ancestors from Ugbowangue are our tenants at Fugbe, Odion Town, to forestall any disorder and escalation of violence.

“The Federal Government should look into the issue of Tompolo, who has been weaponized by his Tantita security company with guns, money, gunboats, manpower, and power to conclude their expansionist ambition. They already rule all the Nigerian coastline.

My President, Nigeria has left us empty and can be wiped out any day.  We appeal, suggest, and implore His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the National Assembly, the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, that the case of an ‘Itsekiri State’ be urgently and strongly considered and granted.

“Let the Itsekiri people have their own state on their land, like the case of the Ijaws in Bayelsa State and others, separate from Ijaws and the Urhobos. An Itsekiri State on our land. This will strongly help to prevent these disturbing, reprehensible acquisitiveness, avarice, and schism of our neighbours.

The Ijaw have not relented in their quest to own part of Warri but, in fact, the whole of Warri. The case of the recent ward delineation is a well-orchestrated plan by the Ijaws and the Urhobos to take over Warri.”