Ijabor Sylvester, a former Leader Warri South Legislative Assembly, has asserted that the government should allocate the Ijaws, Itsekiris, and Urhobos its own local governments to end the crisis in Warri.
Sylvester said this in a joint interview with ARISE NEWS on Saturday amidst the ongoing delineation of electoral wards and polling units in the Warri federal constituency, Delta State.
The move, TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) understands, is to implement a ruling of the Supreme Court, ordering the electoral umpire to reassign wards and polling units across Warri South, Warri South West and Warri North local government areas.
The delineationprocess began on Monday in Warri, with the INEC national chairman, Yakubu Mahmood, saying the commission was ready and the three ethnic groups were prepared.
Speaking of whether the delineation considers the historical peculiarities of the Warri region, Slyvester stressed that the Tribunal of Inquiries is meant to correct certain injustices in court pronouncements and not agitate people.
He explained that the court judgement, especially during the colonial eras, was not interested in justice but only in the governance of convenience, fronting anything that threatened tax collection.
The former legislative leader further noted that evidence and events have proven that the groups are of different tribes and can not be under the Olu of Warri but are separated in local governments.
He said, ‘’All the Tribunal of inquires that have been set up in Warri have always required one thing: give them their separate local government because events and evidence on the ground have shown that they are different tribes and can not be under the Olu of Warri. This will solve the dispute permanently.”
The itsekiri continue to insist that the Warri kingdom belongs to them and that this delineation by INEC of electoral wards and polling units in Warri North, south and South West local government, as ordered by the Supreme Court on December 2nd 2022, is an attempt by the Ijaws and the Urhobos to grab more powers in Warri kingdom.
On his part, Imuere Ejiro, a researcher on Warri Township Uroboho colonial history, maintained that the supreme court order resulted from the fallout of the foundational problem of Warri, which was heightened between 1997 and 2002.
He added that the desire of the three tribes to undermine one other politically is the result of this crisis. He argued that the Olu of Warri, the monarch of the Isekiri people, is using his throne as an advantage to claim ownership of the region politically.
He pointed out that for the Olu of Warri to be afraid of wards being delineated in his constituency shows that they have something to hide, highlighting how worrisome it was that they went to court to return Warri south to 10 wards from 12 wards.