Asaba: INEC meeting disrupted as youths protest Warri ward delineation report

Threaten no election in 2027

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From Joe Obukata Ogbodu, Warri

Pandemonium broke out on Wednesday at the INEC stakeholders’ meeting in Asaba, Delta State, as angry youths stormed the venue over the alleged controversial delineation of wards in Warri Federal Constituency.

The protesters, mainly Itsekiri and Urhobo/Agbarha-Warri youths, disrupted proceedings, chanting and displaying placards with inscriptions such as “There Is No Ijaw In Warri South LGA”, “Warri South Constituency Delineation Is Totally Wrong And Unacceptable” and “INEC Cannot Go Against Its Own Guidelines.”

Videos from the scene showed a large crowd outside the INEC Delta State Conference Hall facing police and military personnel, while inside the hall attendees surged toward the entrance as police intervened to restore order.

The protesters insisted that there was no single Ijaw aboriginal community in Warri South Local Government Area.

They accused INEC of creating ghost wards, particularly the so-called “Ewein wards”, and of carving three disputed wards out of ancestral Okere and Pessu lands.

They also alleged that INEC used coordinates from outside Warri Federal Constituency, including Udu, Burutu, Ughelli South and even Arogbo in Ondo State, to justify the new wards.

The protesters warned that if INEC insisted on working with the alleged controversial report uploaded on its portal for the 2027 general elections, there would be no elections in Warri Federal Constituency.

“If INEC insists on using this fraudulent report in 2027, there will be no election in Warri Federal Constituency,” one of the protesters said.

Eyewitnesses at the venue claimed that the Delta Resident Electoral Commissioner escaped through the backdoor as tension escalated.

It could be recalled that the crisis stemmed from the Supreme Court judgment of 2 December 2022 in Hon. George U. Timinimi & Others v. INEC, which ordered a fresh delineation of wards and polling units in Warri North, Warri South and Warri South-West.

INEC had carried out fieldwork between 8 and 20 July 2024, and presented its report on 20 May 2026 in Asaba.

The report put Warri North at 10 Itsekiri/10 Ijaw wards, Warri South-West at 13 Ijaw/7 Itsekiri wards, and Warri South at 9 Urhobo/8 Itsekiri/3 Ijaw wards. Itsekiri groups, including the Ugbarajo Itsekiri Youths (UIY) and the Itsekiri National Youth Council (INYC), have since rejected the report, demanding that INEC publish the maps, coordinates and polling-unit registers used.

The dispute was later escalated to the Presidency on 11 June 2026, when President Bola Tinubu convened a peace meeting in Abuja with Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, National Security Adviser (NSA) Nuhu Ribadu and seven representatives each from the Itsekiri, Ijaw and Urhobo.

Reacting earlier to the development, Itsekiri leader Chief Ayirimi Emami accused INEC Chairman Prof. Joash Amupitan of flouting Tinubu’s intervention, claiming the president had directed that the nomenclature of the three controversial wards in the GRA, Pessu and Dore Market axis be changed.

Ijaw stakeholders, on the other hand, have welcomed the delineation, describing it as emancipation after 29 years of ward allocation.

As at press time, INEC had not responded to the latest protest, and security agencies were yet to comment on the disruption.