The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has officially released the long awaited Supreme Court ordered wards delineation for Warri Federal Constituency, bringing a major development to the long-standing political and ethnic disagreements among the Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo nationalities in Warri South, Warri North and Warri South-West Local Government Areas.
The new delineation was presented in Asaba during an emergency stakeholders’ meeting by the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Delta State, Etekamba Udo Umoren alongside the supervising National Commissioner for Delta, Edo and Cross River States, Alhaji Abdulrazak Yusuf.
Under the new arrangement, Warri South now has twenty wards, an increase from the previous twelve wards. The development also creates two State House of Assembly constituencies in the area, with the Itsekiri ethnic nationality retaining one constituency, while the Ijaw and Urhobo groups now share another constituency.
In Warri North, the number of wards has risen from ten to twenty, evenly split between the Ijaw and Itsekiri ethnic groups with ten wards each, alongside two State constituencies; Warri North Constituency One and Two.
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Warri South-West also now has twenty wards, up from the former ten, with the Ijaws having thirteen wards and the Itsekiris seven wards, alongside two State constituencies.
INEC further announced the proposed creation of an additional House of Representatives seat for Warri North and Warri South-West Federal Constituency, though the commission noted that the proposal remains subject to constitutional amendment by the National Assembly.
The ward delineation exercise follows years of legal battles, protests and agitations by the various ethnic nationalities over political representation and electoral structure within the Warri Federal Constituenc
