The Alliance for Yoruba Democratic Movements (AYDM), a coalition of over 130 Pan-Yoruba groups, has decried the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) proposed delineation of electoral wards in Warri Federal Constituency Delta State. 
 
The groups described the planned delineation as an invitation to chaos and a calculated threat to Nigeria’s democratic and ethnic stability. Speaking at a press briefing held yesterday in Lagos, Secretary General of AYDM, Popoola Ajayi, noted that the current political and economic exclusion of the Itsekiri people could lead to fresh hostilities in the Niger Delta region and could also threaten national security, oil production, and democratic order if left unaddressed.
   
Flanked by key Yoruba leaders, including Chairman Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG), Wale Osun, President General of Agbekoya, Kunle Oshodi, representatives of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) and Itsekiri communities from Warri Federal Constituency, Ajayi said the time to act is now.
 
 The group also called the attention of President Bola Tinubu and the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, to the risk of possible ethnic conflict similar to that of the 1990s, if urgent steps are not taken to reverse what it described as “a systematic effort to erase the Itsekiri from their ancestral homeland.”
   
The group identified INEC’s proposed ward restructuring as a major factor that can trigger tension, just as it accused the electoral commission of conspiring with vested interests to diminish the political presence of the Itsekiri while expanding the influence of the Ijaw and Urhobo groups. 

“What we are seeing is the weaponisation of electoral boundaries to disenfranchise people,” Ajayi posited.
Citing electoral data, AYDM claimed that the Itsekiri historically controlled 10 out of 13 wards in the former Warri Local Government Area, now split into Warri South, Warri North, and Warri South-West. In comparison, the Ijaw and Urhobo communities held two and one wards, respectively. 
    
“The proposed delineation, the group said, would unjustly reduce Itsekiri representation,” it said. It also accused INEC of flagrant disobedience to multiple court rulings that affirmed the original ward structure, saying that the commission had collapsed nine Itsekiri-dominated wards in Warri South into six, while increasing Urhobo’s single ward to six, despite a court judgment that required the commission to maintain the original 10-ward structure.

Beyond the delineation, AYDM also condemned the award of pipeline surveillance contracts in Itsekiri territory to Tantita Security Services, a company it said was owned by sworn enemies of Itsekiri.”    
  
According to the group, this has resulted in harassment, unlawful arrests, and desecration of spiritual sites in Itsekiri communities.