Members of the Warri Indigenous Women Forum, yesterday, staged a protest at the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja, calling on the United Nations (UN) to intervene in what they described as a fraudulent re-delineation exercise in the Warri Federal Constituency of Delta State.
 
The women, who marched to the commission’s Maitama office, submitted a petition addressed to the INEC Chairman, accusing the electoral body of actions that violate the political and fundamental rights of the Itsekiri people, whose ancestral homeland lies within the Warri Kingdom.
 
The petition was signed by the forum’s Chairman, Tenumah Alero, and its Secretary, Dr Ada Edema. According to the protesters, the re-delineation exercise, allegedly carried out under the immediate past INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, was designed to exclude and politically marginalise the Itsekiri ethnic nationality.
 
They claimed the process was tainted with fraud and conducted in defiance of subsisting court cases. The group said the exercise was undertaken despite the pendency of Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CV/443/2025 at the Federal High Court and an appeal marked CA/ABJ/CV/1457/2025 before the Court of Appeal, Abuja, warning that any further steps by INEC could amount to contempt of court and endanger peace in the area.

The demonstrators alleged that coordinate points were fixed in Edo and Ondo states, as well as other parts of Delta State outside the Warri Federal Constituency, to create what they said were artificial polling units for non-indigenes and non-residents.
 
Describing the move as unlawful and provocative, the women said it could distort state boundaries and trigger fresh conflict. The forum also cited a December 2025 judgment of the Court of Appeal, Asaba Division, in Appeal No. CA/AS/154/2024, which they said affirmed Itsekiri ownership of the Ogbe-Ijoh Community, insisting that INEC could not lawfully create or name a ward in the community contrary to the binding ruling.