Despite protest by a group of concerned Itsekiri leaders, against the implementation of the Supreme Court judgement on the delineation of wards and polling units across the Warri federal constituency in Delta state the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, said it would commence the exercise from Wednesday this week.
The group in its statement signed by F.J. Atie Esq. also called for reconstitution of the supervisory body constituted by INEC to drive the delineation exercise, noting that the head, Professor Rhoda and two others were of Ijaw extraction, an ethnic group they alleged was an interested party on the ward structure they were agitating against.
The Chairperson of this Committee is a person of Ijaw ethnic nationality, Professor Rhoda Gumus, the Officer to superintend the ground operations of the exercise, and the Head of Operations is Elemson Joseph Jumbo, again an Ijaw man. No single Itsekiri was invited for the very first set of stakeholder meetings to consummate this exercise. “
In his welcome address earlier at the meeting Delta State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Sir Etekamba Umoren said the meeting was preparatory to the implementation of the supreme Court judgement on ward and polling units delineation.